The humane act of demining

For a safer soil to tread on:

By Dhaneshi Yatawara

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The East is resetting its normal day to day life along with many people resettling in their homelands. With the liberation of these areas from the Tiger clutches by the security forces of Sri Lanka the next threat comes with the buried deadly devices of the LTTE - unexploded ordnance, UXOs in short, in the uncleared areas. This is high risk to the Government’s resettling process.

With the prime objective of clearing areas contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnances (UXOs), the Ministry of Nation Building is successively progressing on the National Mine Action Program in association with the Sri Lanka Army, UNDP and several International Non Governmental Organisations, specialised in de-mining.

Speaking to the Sunday Observer, Advisor and the Chairman of the National Steering Committee for Mine Action, M.S. Jayasinghe said almost 60 percent of the work has been completed.

“As per the initial surveys carried out by the Information Management System on Mine Action there were about one million land mines and UXOs in the abandoned battlefields. So far we have collected 271,000 such items and as we proceed we feel the tally will be not that high,” Jayasinghe added.

Presently nine mine clearing organisations are functioning the Sri Lanka Army contributing in more than 50 percent of the work bad while INGOs like, Halo Trust, Danish Demining Group, Mine Advisory Group (MAG), Swiss Foundation for Mine action (FSD), Horizon, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), Sarvatra, Milinda Moragoda Institute for People’s Empowerment (MMIPE) do the rest.

According to the Chairman of the National Steering Committee, a sum of 32 m US dollars have been spent on this project since its initiation.

This National Mine Action program initiated in June in the year 2002. The amount is totally funded by foreign aid and carried out under the purview of the Ministry of Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure.

Progress of the action program is being reviewed and evaluated on a regular basis at the National Steering Committee at the Ministry. This quarterly progress report is based on the data furnished by the UNDP Information Management System for Mine Action. The National Steering Committee Act as the supreme body of the decision making for the national mine action program.

This project consists of two major components - Mine clearance and the Mine Risk Education.

The program was initially carried out in the conflict affected areas and in the adjoining districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Ampara, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Currently the program in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu areas have been suspended due to LTTE threats. In all these areas prioritization, operational coordination, and tasking is presided over by the respective District Secretaries.

National Mine Action program is exclusively a government owned program, the Ministry of Nation Building confirms.

As the program is conducted according to international norms and regulations set up by the United Nations this program includes a Mine Risk Education Program. UNICEF is conducting these programs with its partners Wight Pigeon, Sarwodaya and some other local organisations. MRE programs are basically focuses the children, youth, women and men those who are already resettled and who are resettling.

The education programs are in the form of dramas, games, group discussions, house to house visits, lectures, material distribution, community mapping, exhibition and so on.

“Because of this education program the risks on lives of innocent people have reduced drastically,” Mr. Jayasinghe added.

This program that runs along with the demining process has reduced the monthly average casualty rate to ‘zero’ by end of September 2007 since classification of records from 2002.National Mine Action Policy is not so much about mines as it is more about people and their interactions with a mine infested environment.

Land mines are first and foremost a humanitarian concern and must be addressed from this perspective.

It is an impediment to rehabilitation and sustainable development. It is estimated that 730 villages are affected with land mines and UXOs. The Government of Sri Lanka wishes to have a mine free land most probably by the end of 2008 except some parts in North and Trincomalee areas and high security zones.

This is more of a humanitarian, public health and social economic implicating issue in particular of its impact on lives, livelihood, and once more generally creating an environment which should be safe and conducive to peace building, reconstruction and development.

Improvised explosive devices	An improvised explosive set up as a trap by LTTE	Improvised explosive devices
AP mine buried under soil	Demining process on	Collection of Anti Personnel mines