SRI LANKA: Ethiopians Find Familiarity in Minefields

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

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.