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| Sunday, 11 August 2002 |
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De-mining in N-E : Gigantic task undertaken by QRDF by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE A team of de-mining experts from the United States known as the Quick Reaction De-mining Force (QRDF) operating in the Northern Province since their arrival in Sri Lanka April this year, has been responsible for unearthing and destroying 609 mines, 59 pieces of unexploded ordnance while clearing an area of 28,958 square meters, according to a US Embassy spokesman. The U.S. State Department's Senior De-mining Advisor, H. Murphey McCloy Jr. told the 'Sunday Observer' that the de-mining operation is far from over and will have to be continued for another ten or twenty years to clear the large number of mines and other unexploded military hardware buried in the North-East territory during the last two decades during the civil war. Referring to the civil war in Kosovo Mr. McCloy said although the civil war was fought for a lesser number of years, it took three years or more for international de-mining teams to unearth tons of mines and other ordnance. Although officers of the Quick Reaction De-mining Force will leave Sri Lanka at the end of the year, the State Department and the de-mining experts will look at the possibility of training Sri Lankan military personnel in de-mining operations. It is very likely that a team of de-mining training experts will arrive in the near future, to train personnel here, he said. Asked whether the Quick Reaction De-mining Force (QRDF) would also be deployed in the Eastern Province, Mr. McCloy said the local military personnel would be trained to do that job in the future. Mr. McCloy said he had learnt from several international organisations, the Sri Lanka Army and the embassy sources, that a countless number of mines had been buried in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country. The QRDF job was to eliminate the danger posed to innocent civilians. He said the sniffer dogs brought from Mozambique did not encounter any difficulty working in Jaffna as they were acclimatised. Two teams from the US, Quick Reaction De-mining Force based in Mozambique arrived in Sri Lanka last April to locate, identify, record, mark and destroy unexploded ordnance, landmines and improvised explosives found in the Northern Province. The de-mining team consisted of medical technicians, mine detecting dogs, dog handlers, supervisors and administrative staff. Meanwhile, a release from the US Embassy states that there is an increased level of cooperation between the United States and Sri Lanka due to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's recent visit to Washington. |
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