Demining East will end soon
Lakshmi DE SILVA
The Eastern Province was cleared of 95 percent of the mines that were
laid by the LTTE terrorists. The demining process will be completed by
the end of this month and the resettlement program will be completed in
May in Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa districts Advisor, Ministry of
Nation Building and State Infrastructure Development M.S. Jayasinghe
said.
"In Mannar District, demining is going on in 15 Divisional
Secretariat divisions. Mines in six divisions have already been cleared
and 125 families will be resettled in their original places in Musali
area end of this month," he said.
"During the last two decades Sri Lanka has experienced various kinds
of explosives including anti-personnel land mines, anti-tank, unexploded
ordnances (UXOs) and the country suffered socio economic, environmental,
political and cultural set backs due to such dangerous devices. Initial
surveys carried out by the Information Management System on Mine Action
(IMSMA) found there were about one million land mines and UXOs abandoned
in the battle fields, he said.
The cost in removing or demining the explosives were very high. While
it cost about three US Dollars to plant a land mine, it costs around US$
300 to clear a single mine. It was a tedious and dangerous process
needing time and patience and was done under difficult conditions",
Jayasinghe said.
The Education Ministry in collaboration with UNICEF provided an
educational course 'mine risk education' (MRE) to make the people of the
war torn areas aware of land mines. In 2003, 53 people suffered injuries
from land mines within a month. After the MRE educational program -
(36,000 classes were conducted) - the injury rate was reduced to 0.3 per
month, he said.
The Japanese Government provided US$ 16 million, half of the cost
while Australia, Canada, UK, Switzerland and other donors provided the
balance US$ 16 million for demining.
Demining was also going on along the A9 highway - Kandy, Jaffna and
A32 highway - Mannar, Pooneryn to make it possible to restart new
economic and social life for the people of the North, he noted.
Land mine clearing in north of Medawachchiya - Mannar around Yodha
Wewa area was completed.
This major irrigation scheme was to be rehabilitated with Rs. 380
million aid from the World Bank.
Once that area was cleared of mines and developed the old rice bowl
of the North will again be cultivated to bring economic prosperity to
the people of the North he said.
"We have already been able to bring 131,000 acres of paddy land under
the plough after demining was completed in the Eastern Province, he
said. |
