With the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement between the Sri Lanka Government and the LTTE in February 2003 and subsequent commencement of the peace process Minister Milinda Moragoda recognised the need for the resettlement of IDPs and the recommencement of Humanitarian Mine Clearance and established the Milinda Moragoda Institute for Peoples’ Empowerment (MMIPE). MMIPE supported by the government of Norway in partnership with Horizon and Sarvatra, two Indian NGOs with de-mining expertise embarked on a HMA programme in the Vavuniya District in June 2003.

This was solely an initiative of Minister Milinda Moragoda. The use of land mines has been condemned worldwide as indiscriminate and brutal. It has been described as a blind weapon because its victims are more often than not civilians who have often become victims many years after the war has ended. Internationally, significant results have been achieved in banning both production and use of this weapon.

However, regrettably, they are still in use in many parts of the world as is the case in Sri Lanka, where the weapon has been used extensively in various forms over more than 20 years of war and conflict in the north and east.

The effects of war have been devastating particularly for the people living in the area which have been ravaged by the war. Over 80,000 are said to have lost their lives to the war and over one million people were forced to leave their homes creating a massive exodus either to other countries or to other parts of Sri Lanka. The task of bringing back these internally displaced persons (IDPs) to re-house them and create meaningful jobs for them will be a long-term task. For many of them, they have no hope of returning to their homes until the mines are cleared from the war zone.

Many of these displaced are farmers. It has been estimated that some 1.5 million mines have been laid in wide areas of the north and the east. The Sri Lanka Army alone holds receipts for the purchase of 900,000 mines and the number of mines laid by the LTTE (often home-made) are unknown. On the plus side, the Sri Lanka Army has kept good records of where mine fields have been laid. On the negative side, the pace of progress is slow due to the dangerous and painstaking nature of the work which can only be speeded up with an increase in resources and trained personnel.

A description of the de-mining process De-mining is a very slow process. Before mine clearing operations can begin, a technical survey and a careful mapping out of the area to be de-mined must be undertaken. Boundaries of an area are marked out and allocated to each de-mining team. The next step is the clearing away of vegetation. In some instances during this process the teams may come across heaps of rubble. Teams need to exercise great caution in clearing the upper surfaces of the ground before the actual mine clearing process can begin. Each de-miner then further prepares the ground for the work. Painstakingly they use a sharp pointed object to probe the ground up-to four centimeters deep. Once they have completed this task the top four centimeters of earth are raked away revealing the next level. Then a further four inches is probed and raked. Finally the teams will remove up-to 13 centimeters of earth with heavy machinery, just to be absolutely certain that no mines are left.

During this process de-miners have to cover each square centimeter of the ground very methodically. If they come across a suspicious object, they have to carefully remove the soil around the object until they can determine what it is. If it is a mine, then a specialist is called in for its removal. All the mines collected in one day are later exploded in a safe area. Up-to the year 2003, as part of the UNDP approved procedure for mine clearance, it was required to run a metal detector over the entire area cleared.

However, now metal detectors are required only for battle area clearance. In such cases, this means that every metal object whether an old nail or a bottle-top needs to be removed. When teams are working in areas where anti-personnel mines are known to be embedded, they use rakes, carefully inching their way forward. All team members are expected to wear special protective clothing including a face mask, body armour and special boots. The thickness and design of the soles of these boots help deflect the blast if a de-miner happens to step on a mine. Due to the painstaking effort and professionalism of the staff this fortunately has never occurred. After an area has been carefully covered in the above described manner, a team member with a metal detector will cover the area once more. Finally, a bulldozer may be used to complete the check. A question often asked is why a bulldozer cannot be used from the start. The primary reason is because areas might have anti-tank mines or improvised explosive devices which would harm the operator and damage the bulldozer. The second reason is that the mines while usually buried about five to eight centimeters under the surface, are sensitive to the pressure of a foot (a small surface area) but may not be sensitive to a bulldozer passing over. In other words, if a bulldozer is used at the beginning of the process, the mine might not explode but instead be compacted further into the surface only to reappear years later as an innocent farmer tills his soil.

De-mining teams generally work for stretches of 20 minutes followed by 10-minute breaks to ensure peak concentration. Their day typically begins at 7:00 am. At noon they halt their work for lunch and a break during the hottest hours of the day. They begin their work again at 4 p.m. and continue until 6:30 p.m. All de-mining work carried out by the teams is conducted according to international standards. Quality assurance and accreditation of the de-mined areas is carried out by the National Steering Committee on Mine Action (NSC-MA) Sri Lanka under the guidance of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In fact, during the process of their work, Sarvatra redesigned and adapted several tools commonly used in de-mining which are more efficient, economical and better suited to the terrain of Vavuniya than existing tools.

These developments included improvements to de-mining tools such as the anti-mine roller, raker, vegetation cutter and leveling blade, all of which can be used in similar terrain elsewhere. Sarvatra also designed a special mini two-cylinder excavator. These improvements have been commended by the UNDP as well as by the National Steering Committee on Mine Action (NSC-MA) Sri Lanka.

Minister Moragoda took a personal interest in the work of the only Sri Lankan NGO involved in demining and the work of the two Indian teams he had brought over. He placed great importance on the NGO building good relations with the people in the areas they worked in; they also sought to bridge ethnic and religious differences of the inhabitants in these areas. The de-mining teams themselves set a good example of national unity and international co-operation, as they were comprised of Indians coming from a large number of different regions of India, speaking different languages and with different customs and beliefs, working alongside their Sri Lankan colleagues towards the common goal of de-mining to make areas safe again.

It has been reported that over 14000 anti personal mines and a further 10000 Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) have been destroyed by all NGOs involved in de-mining in this country and the only Sri Lankan NGO, MMIPE together with their Indian colleagues have made a significant contribution towards this achievement. Large extents of land have been certified as being mine free and people have returned to their homes and recommenced their livelihoods.

Minister Milinda Moragoda and his new Sri Lanka National Congress has also taken the initiative to request the government to review its position on signing the Ottawa Convention on the Banning of Land Mines. Now that the war is over and the clearing of mines is being undertaken on a much bigger scale than before, there is no reason for this country not to become a party to the Ottawa Convention. We will have much to gain by becoming a party to the Convention. Our country would qualify to receive increased international support for humanitarian mine clearing and also for assistance for victims of mines. Yes there would be support for land mine survivors and their families. We need to ensure that land mines would be banned and that the horrendous suffering caused by such anti personal mines is put to an end.