Thursday, 2nd October 2014
Sandasen Marasinghe
Sri Lanka has been able to set a record by demining more than 96 percent of a vast area that was strewn with explosives by a terrorist organization over a period of three decades, said Military Spokesman and Director of Defence and Urban Development Ministry Media Centre Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya.
He said that there was only a 79 square Kilometre area in the forestry areas in North and East to be cleared out of a total of 2064 square Kilometres of confirmed Hazardous Area.
Brigadier Wanigasooriya made these observations at a press conference held at the Defence and Urban Development Ministry Media Centre in Kollupitiya.
He also said that it was a remarkable achievement of the of country that it could demine such an area whereas most other countries which face similar situations are still at it even 40 years after the ending of conflicts . He added that another record is that Sri Lanka is able guarantee safety within a short period of time such as five years.
Brigadier Wanigasooriya further said the Sri Lanka Army could be proud that almost 70 percent of the demined area was cleared by the troops while the rest was cleared by local and foreign NGOs. He added that more than 600 Army personnel have been deployed to clear the remaining area. He also said that this area has to be cleared by hand inch by inch as the area is located in the forests. He added that this was time consuming.
The Military Spokesman said that the 79 square kilometre hazardous area covers all the districts in North and East. He said that Kilinochchi, Mannar, Batticaloa and Mullativue have 17, 15, 14 and 13 square Kilometres to be cleared while Polonnaruwa, Ampara and Anuradhapura too have areas of 0.3, 0.6 and 3 square kilometres to be demined respectively. He added that the Jaffna, Vavunia and Trinncomalee districts have only 3, 4 and 6 square kilometres to be cleared respectively.
From: Daily News. http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=police-legal/sri-lanka-sets-demining-record
