Mine clearing in North almost complete

Wednesday, 1 May 2013 00:07 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

95% of the Confirmed Hazardous Area has been cleared of mines, according to the National Mine Action Centre which was established in the Economic Development Ministry after the war. The remaining Confirmed Hazardous Area (CHA) is only 96 square kilometres as at the end of March 2013. Most of this area is covered with shrubs and jungle.

The massive pace of de-mining has helped the Government to resettle within a three-year period all persons the conflict displaced. The Mine Action Centre’s program still continues with the support of UNDP, UNICEF, donor community, the Sri Lanka Army’s Engineering Brigade and national and international de-mining organisations to clear the hazardous area of land mines, anti-personnel mines, booby traps and unexploded ordnance (UXOs) the LTTE had laid during the course of the war.

Since the gravity of the problem has gradually been reduced, some of the de-mining organisations such as Sarvatra, Horizan and MMIPE have already moved out since their jobs have been completed. The remaining organisations are still continuing the tasks assigned to them. After they complete their operations the Army Engineering Brigade, which has the biggest resources pool comprising manual, mechanical mine detection techniques and mine Detecting Dogs (MDD), will take over the responsibility in case the need for more mine clearing arises. In June 2009, a month after the defeat of LTTE terrorism the Government with the support of donor communities such as Australia, Japan, China, India, EU, USA, UNDP, UNICEF, national and international mine action operators implemented a comprehensive and rapid de-mining program to clear the affected areas estimated to be 2,064 square kilometres.