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| Sunday, 4 August 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Tracking mines and UXO By Jayanthi Liyanage An inevitable aftermath of any protracted war is de-mining. Tracking buried anti-personnel mines and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) such as mortar bombs, artillery shells and aerially-delivered bombs requires both short-term and years-drawn meticulous mine-action.
"In France, Belgium and Germany, they are still clearing mines of the First World War," says Alex Van Roy, Chief Technical Adviser of Mine Action Sri Lanka, the UNDP Team implementing the National Mine Action Programme in Colombo. "These countries have come up with a long-term procedure to deal with mines and that's what we will also do here." The team has besides Van Roy, three more UNDP Technical Advisers - Camilla Madsen, Leonie Barnes and Tim Horner. Mine action, Van Roy says, is not just clearance but an organ of five pillars. "They are Mine Risk Education (MRE), Mine Clearance, Advocacy for conflicting parties to sign an anti-personnel mine ban treaty, Victim Assistance and Stockpile Reduction. Our's is a preparatory assistance project, strengthening the Sri Lankan Government's co-ordination for these five pillars in the North and the North-East." Ms. Madsen, based in Colombo, will oversee MRE or making people aware of risks in venturing through mined areas. Community Responding to questions about how the team plans to carry out their de-mining work, Van Roy says: "We will first conduct a needs assessment in mine-affected areas and then decide on the best methods of MRE," and explains, "If children are the most-affected, we obviously need to target them. We need to understand why the community interacts with mines or UXOs and come up with a strategy to prevent accidents." Mine clearance has more to it than the mere act of clearing mines, as surveys need to be carried out to find exact locations of mines and their impact on people living in the affected environment. Victim assistance helps survivors to be more meaningful members of society and also receive medical support and psyco-social education. "We can provide an injured farmer with technology to continue farming or alternative vocational training to switch to another livelihood," says Van Roy. Priorities The UNDP program will establish a National Steering Committee, a policy-making body which approves the national work plans and assists the priorities of mine action. "This will be high level committee with representatives from both LTTE and the Government," he says. The co-ordination body of national mine action will be the National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) which, according to Van Roy, will be formulated no sooner than the preliminary discussions with the Government come to a successful close. Various GA offices in mine-affected areas will be the key to the mine action process. The Authority will have a number of district offices located in various kachcheris in GA areas. "To begin with, we have identified offices for Jaffna and Vavuniya." The Vavuniya office will be the base of Ms. Barnes, field level adviser for the North-East and Vanni, and Horner for Jaffna, where a small mine-action unit is already in action. "What we want to do is to focus the mine clearance effort of Government and the LTTE in a very co-ordinated fashion so that people who really need assistance will get it," Van Roy explains. "There may be a landmine laid on the road to a well, a school or other important infrastructure. It makes a lot of sense to spend money in clearing that land mine than to clear 10,000 mines in an area where people don't frequent," stresses Van Roy. "Addressing the mine problem gives better results in a quicker time frame if we go by the impact to people rather than the number of mines in area." He says that mine-data available with the team is not sufficient to infer the full level of mine concentration up North and East. Assessments Once their assessments are done, based on the findings, more District Offices will be opened in affected areas. "I have a feeling that our requirement would be in the North East, along the East Coast and the North Western Coast." Van Roy indicates that the team's co-ordination efforts have, until now, only been with the government. "Once our technical advisers begin co-ordination at district level, we will know where we are. Then we can ask the LTTE for their input. As our mine action is a national effort, we obviously need the input of LTTE liaison offices." "There is a lot of MRE and mine-clearance work happening here at present with national and international orgaizations," he says. "Unfortunately, donors are waiting to see which way the peace process would go." The mine action information the team gathered will be available at district offices in a global Information system data base (a digital map). "So that development organizations and people who want to go home" will know the areas which are suspect, mined and cleared. "Once we leave, mine action will be a wholly Sri Lankan initiative," Van Roy affirms. "For the years to come, there will be small teams in Sri Lanka, dealing with mines on a daily basis, like in many parts of Europe." |
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