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| Sunday, 24 August 2003 |
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Security |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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US training for our soldiers By Ramani Kangaraarachchi A team from United States of America will conduct a training course for Sri Lankan soldiers on humanitarian demining shortly. About 200 soldiers who are presently engaged in the demining process in Jaffna, Vavuniya and Batticaloa will undergo this training. Colonel Ananda Chandrasiri, Commander Engineer Brigade, said that Sri Lankan soldiers were trained only on demining operations for military purposes and it would be an advantage for them to be trained on humanitarian demining where a 99.6 safety percentage was required. He said that four Field Engineer Regiments deployed in the north and east had already cleared over 100,000 mines within an extent of 17.5 square km and resettled displaced people through the respective GAs with the minimum resources available in the Army since March 2001. Forty-one soldiers had been injured while carrying out these operations, he said. The Army had cleared 95% of landmines, much more than what the NGOs had done in the past and they were capable of carrying out more such operations by themselves in government controlled areas, he added. Despite, a number of NGOs had been mobilised for such work with sufficient funds and equipment, their output was very marginal. The Army believed that still there were about 1 1/2 million mines in the north and east and it was laudable that the US government had extended this facility to provide training and equipment for this purpose for the Sri Lankan government, Colonel Chandrasiri said. |
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