06-30-2004, 03:03 PM
<span style='font-size:25pt;line-height:100%'>Both sides in Sri Lanka war cling to landmines</span>
30 Jun 2004
By Dan Caspersz
A danger sign marks a minefield.
Photo by DAN CASPERSZ
JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (AlertNet) - It is two years since the Sri Lankan government and separatist rebels agreed a ceasefire, and people want to go home even though the peace is fragile, but the country is littered with dangerous landmines.
Although both sides are clearing mines, neither government forces nor the Tamil Tiger armed movement is prepared to promise not to lay any more.
"We still need landmines to defend our bases. They provide us with an early warning of an enemy attack," Major Peiris of the Sri Lankan army told AlertNet.
Some 64,000 people were killed during two decades of bloody civil war, and an estimated 380,000 people are still displaced.
NGOs say that an estimated 1.5 million landmines strewn across the war-torn north and east are one of the biggest obstacles to families going home.
Most of the mines are in the north, where the heaviest fighting took place and both sides used mines to fortify their positions as they wrestled over territory.
During the conflict Major Peiris' regiment laid mines. Now they are removing them, but he is still convinced their military use is justified.
Speaking in Jaffna, Peiris said: "Until there’s a permanent peaceful solution we can’t stop using mines."
The Jaffna peninsula is controlled by the Sri Lankan army, who maintain a large presence there.
FIERCEST FIGHTING
The peninsula has been the scene of the fiercest fighting over the years as control has passed from the army to the Tigers and then back again, with the civilian population caught in the crossfire.
There are more mines in the Jaffna peninsula than in the rest of Sri Lanka combined.
Peiris is noticeably young for a senior officer -- in his mid to late 30s -- but he commands the Sri Lankan army 6th Field Engineering Regiment, and after nine years of active service, he is a veteran of the war.
"We’re fighting a war against terrorists, not conventional troops," he said.
There is an uneasy calm in Jaffna.
The Tamil Tiger logo –- a roaring tiger framed by guns -- is sprayed onto walls and unarmed female Tiger fighters walk the streets openly.
Every second building in the town is riddled with bullet-holes.
Many buildings have been completely obliterated by artillery and airstrikes, with just a wall or two standing awkwardly.
TIGER TERRITORY
The army will not allow the government to agree to a landmine ban.
A U.N. official in Sri Lanka said the army had receipts for the purchase of 1.3 million anti-personnel mines and estimated 400,000 of them had still not been used.
The Jaffna peninsula is an island linked to the mainland by a narrow causeway, cut off by Tiger territory.
A minimum of several hours' journey from Jaffna, Kilinochchi is the capital of the self-proclaimed Tamil state, deep in the jungle.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting a guerrilla war to establish "Tamil Eelam", an independent state for the Tamil people, who are a minority ethnic community compared to the majority Singhalese population.
Entering Tiger territory means passing through no man’s land, a single road between vast minefields, going through Tamil Eelam customs, answering the brusque questions of border guards, and signing paperwork in triplicate.
There is a Tamil Eelam police force, law courts, schools and a Tamil Eelam bank.
Tamil Tiger fighters maintain a discreet but unmistakeable presence. They wear distinctive tiger-striped uniforms and carry AK47s.
The movement has proven itself a ruthless and feared guerrilla force, but after years of conflict and military deadlock, its leaders are giving peace a go.
The Tamil Tiger spokesman in Kilinochchi is Daya Master, a small man with bright eyes.
'IMPORTANT MILITARY TOOL'
Young men with walkie-talkies stood by as Daya Master spoke softly but firmly, a massive portrait of the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on the wall behind him.
"The Sri Lankan government needs to initiate an end to the use of landmines," Daya Master told AlertNet.
"Only after that can we start thinking about it too," he said
"Landmines are an important military tool that we use to good effect on the battlefield."
More than 1,000 locally recruited deminers work for specialist mine clearance NGOs in Sri Lanka, and the government army employs a further 300 soldiers in full-time mine clearance.
The work is slow and dangerous, and complicated by the division of the north into government and rebel-controlled areas.
The Tamil Tigers have provided 600 de-miners to clear land for civilian resettlement in the swathe of territory they control across the north and pockets in the east.
Although the Sri Lankan government pledged in 2003 to clear the country of mines by the end of 2006, the prospects look bleak.
"The Sri Lankan army used this school as a base during the war, " Maria Vathanie, who works for NGO Save the Children's mine risk education programme told AlertNet, pointing to a red sign by the playground of Lingapuram Saraswady Primary School, near Trincomalee, in eastern Sri Lanka.
PLAYING NEAR MINES
Many of the children at are too young to read the words "Danger! Mines!", but the message is clear from the skull and crossbones.
There is a minefield next to the school.
"They’ve marked the minefields, but they haven’t removed any of the mines yet," she said.
Landmines are not on the agenda in negotiations, and foreign funding for mine clearance is severely limited by both sides' failure to agree a landmine ban.
Until the mines are cleared, hundreds of thousands of people remain in camps.
Those that can return are terrorised by mines all around them, around their homes, on their farming land and by their schools.
"Sri Lanka will never be completely free of landmines. There will always be one more mine that we haven’t got to," Paul Mackintosh of the Danish Demining Group told AlertNet.
But with landmines, the number of landmines is less important than where they are.
"Our target is to have areas critical to the return of refugees cleared by the end of 2006," he said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefres...08859227592.htm
30 Jun 2004
By Dan Caspersz
A danger sign marks a minefield.
Photo by DAN CASPERSZ
JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (AlertNet) - It is two years since the Sri Lankan government and separatist rebels agreed a ceasefire, and people want to go home even though the peace is fragile, but the country is littered with dangerous landmines.
Although both sides are clearing mines, neither government forces nor the Tamil Tiger armed movement is prepared to promise not to lay any more.
"We still need landmines to defend our bases. They provide us with an early warning of an enemy attack," Major Peiris of the Sri Lankan army told AlertNet.
Some 64,000 people were killed during two decades of bloody civil war, and an estimated 380,000 people are still displaced.
NGOs say that an estimated 1.5 million landmines strewn across the war-torn north and east are one of the biggest obstacles to families going home.
Most of the mines are in the north, where the heaviest fighting took place and both sides used mines to fortify their positions as they wrestled over territory.
During the conflict Major Peiris' regiment laid mines. Now they are removing them, but he is still convinced their military use is justified.
Speaking in Jaffna, Peiris said: "Until there’s a permanent peaceful solution we can’t stop using mines."
The Jaffna peninsula is controlled by the Sri Lankan army, who maintain a large presence there.
FIERCEST FIGHTING
The peninsula has been the scene of the fiercest fighting over the years as control has passed from the army to the Tigers and then back again, with the civilian population caught in the crossfire.
There are more mines in the Jaffna peninsula than in the rest of Sri Lanka combined.
Peiris is noticeably young for a senior officer -- in his mid to late 30s -- but he commands the Sri Lankan army 6th Field Engineering Regiment, and after nine years of active service, he is a veteran of the war.
"We’re fighting a war against terrorists, not conventional troops," he said.
There is an uneasy calm in Jaffna.
The Tamil Tiger logo –- a roaring tiger framed by guns -- is sprayed onto walls and unarmed female Tiger fighters walk the streets openly.
Every second building in the town is riddled with bullet-holes.
Many buildings have been completely obliterated by artillery and airstrikes, with just a wall or two standing awkwardly.
TIGER TERRITORY
The army will not allow the government to agree to a landmine ban.
A U.N. official in Sri Lanka said the army had receipts for the purchase of 1.3 million anti-personnel mines and estimated 400,000 of them had still not been used.
The Jaffna peninsula is an island linked to the mainland by a narrow causeway, cut off by Tiger territory.
A minimum of several hours' journey from Jaffna, Kilinochchi is the capital of the self-proclaimed Tamil state, deep in the jungle.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting a guerrilla war to establish "Tamil Eelam", an independent state for the Tamil people, who are a minority ethnic community compared to the majority Singhalese population.
Entering Tiger territory means passing through no man’s land, a single road between vast minefields, going through Tamil Eelam customs, answering the brusque questions of border guards, and signing paperwork in triplicate.
There is a Tamil Eelam police force, law courts, schools and a Tamil Eelam bank.
Tamil Tiger fighters maintain a discreet but unmistakeable presence. They wear distinctive tiger-striped uniforms and carry AK47s.
The movement has proven itself a ruthless and feared guerrilla force, but after years of conflict and military deadlock, its leaders are giving peace a go.
The Tamil Tiger spokesman in Kilinochchi is Daya Master, a small man with bright eyes.
'IMPORTANT MILITARY TOOL'
Young men with walkie-talkies stood by as Daya Master spoke softly but firmly, a massive portrait of the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on the wall behind him.
"The Sri Lankan government needs to initiate an end to the use of landmines," Daya Master told AlertNet.
"Only after that can we start thinking about it too," he said
"Landmines are an important military tool that we use to good effect on the battlefield."
More than 1,000 locally recruited deminers work for specialist mine clearance NGOs in Sri Lanka, and the government army employs a further 300 soldiers in full-time mine clearance.
The work is slow and dangerous, and complicated by the division of the north into government and rebel-controlled areas.
The Tamil Tigers have provided 600 de-miners to clear land for civilian resettlement in the swathe of territory they control across the north and pockets in the east.
Although the Sri Lankan government pledged in 2003 to clear the country of mines by the end of 2006, the prospects look bleak.
"The Sri Lankan army used this school as a base during the war, " Maria Vathanie, who works for NGO Save the Children's mine risk education programme told AlertNet, pointing to a red sign by the playground of Lingapuram Saraswady Primary School, near Trincomalee, in eastern Sri Lanka.
PLAYING NEAR MINES
Many of the children at are too young to read the words "Danger! Mines!", but the message is clear from the skull and crossbones.
There is a minefield next to the school.
"They’ve marked the minefields, but they haven’t removed any of the mines yet," she said.
Landmines are not on the agenda in negotiations, and foreign funding for mine clearance is severely limited by both sides' failure to agree a landmine ban.
Until the mines are cleared, hundreds of thousands of people remain in camps.
Those that can return are terrorised by mines all around them, around their homes, on their farming land and by their schools.
"Sri Lanka will never be completely free of landmines. There will always be one more mine that we haven’t got to," Paul Mackintosh of the Danish Demining Group told AlertNet.
But with landmines, the number of landmines is less important than where they are.
"Our target is to have areas critical to the return of refugees cleared by the end of 2006," he said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefres...08859227592.htm
Truth 'll prevail