Randomly placed landmines, contaminated wells and a lack of information are the main problems facing de-miners in Sri Lanka as they try to clear areas before thousands of civilians return home after a 25-year-old civil war, the country head of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) said.
Towards the end of the war between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil separatists, which ended in April, almost 300,000 people were forced to flee their homes and live in government-controlled camps in the north of the Indian Ocean island.
Now, with thousands of people returning home, de-mining teams are under pressure to make areas safe as quickly as possible.
“There are a lot of issues which we have to contend with such as ‘nuisance’ mines, which are not laid according to standard patterns and are hidden behind trees and buildings or by the sides of roads and paths,” Llewelyn Jones, MAG’s country program manager told AlertNet in an interview.
“Also, there have been no people living in the conflict-affected areas for some time so we don’t have strong local intelligence as to where possible minefields might be which makes our job more difficult.”
Jones, whose organisation has worked in Sri Lanka since 2002 and has cleared over 35,000 mines and ordnance, said wells in villages are also contaminated with unexploded ordnance dumped by retreating rebels who could not carry heavy supplies as they fled.
UNCLEAR CONTAMINATION
There are no official figures on how many mines, unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices were used during the war, although reports suggest there could be up to 1.5 million landmines alone.
Landmine Monitor says both the Sri Lankan government, which is not a signatory of the Landmine Ban Treaty, and fighters of Liberation Tamil Tigers of the Eelam (LTTE) used landmines during the conflict although in a recent report it said it did not have compelling evidence that government forces had used landmines since May 2008,
“There were serious allegations of use of antipersonnel mines by Sri Lankan security forces in 2007 and early 2008; Sri Lanka has strongly denied all accusations,” said the report.
The LTTE was considered to be expert in making explosive weapons, manufactured several types of antipersonnel and anti-vehicle mines.
Landmine Monitor identified 1,272 casualties in Sri Lankafrom 1999 to 2008, but human rights groups say figures are too low as many injuries and deaths go unreported.
Jones said while it appeared that neither side directly targeted civilians, contaminated areas included residential areas and places used by villagers to sustain their livelihoods such as paddy fields.
“There is a lot of work to be done and there are still many areas which de-miners, including those from the Sri Lankan army, have not surveyed,” he warned.
Clearing a landmine area about one sq. km could take a few months, said Jones, whereas battlefield clearance – where there are only unexploded ordnance and no landmines – could be done in a week. Aid workers say that on average around 2,000 people daily are returning to their home areas in Jaffna in the extreme north of the island.
Others are going back to Mannar in the northwest, Vavuniya in the north as well as parts of the east.
Jones, whose organisation is currently de-mining areas in Mannar, said it was inevitable that there would be some casualties as people stray into surrounding areas which are not certified as clear.
“It is key to make sure that people are aware of mines, which generally people in the north are, as they have lived with the conflict for many years and they tend to be more aware of mines and the risks,” he said.
AlertNet