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SRI LANKA: Ethiopians Find Familiarity in Minefields
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Jul 26, 2004 (IPS) - The slow and dangerous work of Sri Lankan de-miners, to clear
the northern and eastern part of the island littered with
landmines that maim and kill, is under study by Ethiopian
officials currently in Sri Lanka.
Close to 200,000 mines have been cleared so far out of an
estimated 1.5 million unexploded ordinances in the war-ravaged
north and east, A.N. Kunasingham, secretary of the
government's National Steering Committee for Mine Action
(NSCMA), told IPS.
He said Sri Lanka has plans to clear all mines by 2006 and
Ethiopia is keen to study the mine-clearing strategy adopted by
the country.
Kunasingham also revealed that Cambodia and two other
African countries - Burundi and Sudan had also expressed
concern to learn from Sri Lanka.
Most of the mines are in the north, where the heaviest fighting
took place between government troops and the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam or LTTE. Both sides used mines to fortify their
positions as they entered into bloody battles over territory.
More than 64,000 people have been killed during the two
decades of conflict. The LTTE or Tamil Tigers have their foothold
in the country's north and east and 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.
A Norwegian-brokered ceasefire in February 2002 is holding
but peace talks stalled in April last year due to disagreement
over the agenda, with Tamils seeking interim self-rule and the
government wanting parallel talks on a final settlement.
Like Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, too, is in a stalemate in the peace
process with Eritrea and these commonalities help make the
sharing of experiences much easier.
Politically, both Ethiopia and Eritrea are currently at a tense
standoff and the international diplomatic community is at its wits
end in trying to break the deadlock. What will happen next is
anyone's guess.
The Ethiopian-Eritrean war between 1998 to 1999 was the
biggest in the world at the time, clearly surpassing the Kosovo
war in the number of casualties, troops involved and displaced
civilians. The number of dead and wounded was estimated at
100,000 with an involvement of about half a million troops and
the displacement of about 600,000 civilians.
As at the end of the year, the United Nations Mission in
Ethiopia and Eritrea had 4,000 U.N. troops, including some
military observers deployed in a 25-kilometre wide buffer area,
called the Temporary Security Zone or TSZ, between the two
states.
But the TSZ is also one of the most heavily mined places in the
world.
According to the Ethiopian Landmine Impact Survey, released
in March, landmines threaten the lives of two million people in
the country. The survey also revealed that over the past two
years, 16,000 people have been involved in landmine blast
incidents, of which 1,295 were killed or injured.
''We are learning a lot from the Sri Lanka programme,
particularly the mine risk education and awareness aspects,"
Teklowold Mengesha, director of the Ethiopian Mine Action
Office, told IPS in a phone interview from the northern city of
Jaffna.
''One of the positive elements in Sri Lanka is that international
standards and procedures are being followed in the de-mining
exercise here,'' said Mengesha who's the leader of the three-
member Ethiopian team.
About 2,000 locally recruited de-miners work for specialist
mine clearance non-governmental organisations or NGOs in Sri
Lanka, and the government army employs a further 300 soldiers
in full-time mine clearance.
The Tamil Tigers have also 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.
Derhane Achame, head of the mine risk education section in
the Ethiopian Mine Action Office, said his group was also
impressed by the Sri Lankan awareness programmes handled
by the NGOs.
''This is well coordinated, using different techniques like home-
to-home education and street dramas among other methods,''
Achame told IPS.
''Another success is the cooperation between military and
civilian de-miners,'' he pointed out.
NSCMA's Kunasingham said one of the reasons why the Sri
Lanka programme stands out from de-mining work in other
countries is because it is controlled and owned by the state and
is also cost-effective.
''The mine action programme is coordinated by the NSCMA
with all its members being voluntary while a one-stop shop
helps clear bureaucratic hurdles in bringing in equipment,
expatriate staff and other material,'' added Kunasingham.
But although both sides are clearing mines, neither
government forces nor the Tamil Tiger armed movement is
prepared to promise not to lay any more.
And donors caution that Sri Lanka's target of removing all
landmines by 2006 is ambitious due to the shaky peace
process and shrinking donor funds.
Since the U.N. started keeping records from 1996 nearly 1,000
people have been killed or injured by mines - and that does not
include soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels.
About a quarter of all casualties have been children who tend
to be hurt by unexploded ordnance rather than caught in a
minefield.
Last week, the Landmine Ban Advocacy Forum - a group
comprising humanitarian organisations including the United
Nations Development Program and the United Nations
Children's Fund or UNICEF - called on the Sri Lankan
government and the Tamil Tigers to sign treaties banning
landmines.
Sri Lanka has so far refused to sign the Anti-Personnel Mine
Ban Treaty, commonly known as the Ottawa Convention, while
the Tamil Tigers are reluctant to agree to the Geneva Call Deed
of Commitment.
Netherlands ambassador Susan Blankhart told a forum on Jul.
14 that in funding support for landmine clearance work, donors
needed assurances that these incendiary devices would not be
used again.
''In the perspective of a donor country such a guarantee is of
great importance,'' she told the forum.
Blankhart said donors may even withdraw from mine action
work in the absence of steps by Colombo towards a
comprehensive ban on landmines. (END)
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