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| Monday, 29 April 2002 |
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by Ravi Ladduwahetty An international landmine authority yesterday called upon the Government to set up a national mine actions agency for demining land mines activities, claiming that there were two frontline international organisations which were prepared to fund Sri Lanka's demining process. Sri Lanka's Country Researcher for the Land Mine Monitor, an Initiative of the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines Saliya Edirisinghe told the Daily News yesterday that it was high time that the state agency be established to coordinate all activities in relation to the demining process, which encompasses mapping of the affected areas, an essential prerequisite to the demining process. There is an estimate of at least 100,000 land mines in the North and the East and it is very important that there is a survey done for these and there are international agencies which are prepared to fund the demining process, Edirisinghe said. It is incumbent upon the Government to set up a State Authority which will undertake the surveying and marking of the affected areas, the clearance of mines on a priority basis. There should also be a mine risk education and awareness program in this country. It is also necessary to emphasise on the need for the establishment of such an authority to prevent the duplication of work, the wastage of resources which had been the bane of the other countries, he said. There have been some international funding for demining in Sri Lanka with the World Bank allocating US$ 1.3 million, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) - US $ 300,000 and Mine Action Services, a further US$ 38,000. He also stressed that demining was an expensive scientific exercise and that it costs around US$ 1000 to demine a single mine, in contrast to the LTTE which uses equipment such as garden rakes. |
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