The government will start de-mining operations in the cleared areas of the North next month. Several foreign countries, including Japan and the United States, have already provided US$ 32 million for the service, which will be carried out by NGOs.

The NGOs involved in the de-mining process are the Danish De-mining Group the Federation of Swiss De-mining, the Mining Advisory Group, the Milinda Moragoda Institute of People’s Empowerment, Hello Trust, Horizon and SARAVTRA.

The Mine Action Steering Committee’s chairman M.S. Jayasinghe told Daily Mirror yesterday that the operations would be carried out in three stages once the security forces give clearance. Mr. Jayasinghe, who is also advisor to the Nation Building Ministry, said that an ‘impact assessment’ in the identified areas would be carried out first.

Later the military will implement a “battle area clearance” operation to remove unexploded mortars and air-dropped bombs.

“Sometimes these bombs get stuck about one metre under the earth, posing a deadly threat to civilian lives. Such unexploded weapons are de-mined under this phase of the operations. Later, we enter the humanitarian de-mining phase,” he said.

The de-mining operations will be carried out in Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Mannar and a small area in the Jaffna district. The Nation Building Ministry and the UNDP will oversee the de-mining operations and ensure that they are carried out according to international standards, and recommend the cleared areas for civilian settlements subsequently.

Mr. Jayasinghe said that a de-miner could only clear nine square metres of a heavily mined field in one day.

“We shall give priority to inhabited areas and farmlands when launching the de-mining programme. Next month we will start the project in Manner. We have almost finished the task in the East. Only a small area in Thoppigala remains uncleared. We will finish that soon,” he said.

He said that Japan, which had given US$ 16 million, was the single biggest donor in this exercise.  He said that the United States had agreed to provide more funds for the job in the future.