By Shanika Sriyananda
Over 1,846 Sqkms of land in the North have been cleared of mines and priority have been given to de-mine the Mullathivu district as most of the displaced people are from Mullaithivu.
“Of the 28,000, the majority of displaced people in the welfare centres are residents of the Mullaithivu district and the government has given priority to de-mine these areas”, Military Spokesman Maj.Gen. Ubhaya Madawela said adding that it was time consuming as the area is highly cmined since the LTTE fought its last battle there.
Of the 1,440 sq kms of land in Mullaithivu,which identified as heavily mined, 148 sq kms of land have been cleared of mines.
According to the military spokesman, the 1,100 Army de-miners de-miners of eight other local and foreign de-mining groups have recovered over 303,326 mines including Anti- personnel mines, anti tank mines and Unexploded Ordnance (UXOs) buried by the LTTE.
The land area in the North and the East is nearly 18,758.5 sq kms. According to Maj. Gen. Madawala, over 4,000 sq kms have been identified as lands where the LTTE had buried landmines and anti-personnel mines.
“We have cleared over 1,846 sq kms of mines in Mannar, Vavuniya, Killinochchi, Mullaithivu, Jaffna, Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincolamee, anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts”, he said.