Emergency clearance of the main road verges using armoured front loaders
Minefield survey and clearance has been vital to facilitating the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people in northern Sri Lanka, and this continues to be the case, both for those displaced in the final phases of the war (2008-2009), as well as those forced out of areas such as Jaffna’s High Security Zones in the 1990s.
There is a continuing requirement for clearance around houses to allow people to move back home, as well as surrounding paddy fields, coconut plantations, grazing land and community infrastructure. HALO’s 2011 Workplan has been devised through close cooperation with Regional Mine Action Offices and in conjunction with District Work Plans and with the 2011 Joint Plan for Assistance (JPA) for the Northern Province. Task Prioritisation is based on criteria set out specifically in the Government of Sri Lanka’s National Mine Action Strategy. HALO’s 2011 Workplan comprises 94 tasks or more than 218 hectares (539 acres) of land needed for resettlement and the resumption of livelihoods (the two highest priority categories set out in the Strategy).
JAFFNA
During the ceasefire period from 2002 - 2008, HALO made significant progress in clearing the dense mine belts cutting across the peninsula, often running through villages and across valuable rice paddy. With the end of the war in 2009, the military–controlled High Security Zones and other restricted areas began to be reopened for resettlement. However, many of these areas were heavily mined during fighting in the 1990s and require survey and clearance before people can move back.
There are some 70,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Jaffna, most of whom have been living with host families or in welfare centres for the past 20 years, in addition to refugees. Clearance of the remaining minefields is vital to ensure that the peace dividend in Jaffna can be fully realised by ensuring the safe return of IDPs and removing restrictions on development.
KILINOCHCHI, MULLAITTIVU, MANNAR AND VAVUNIYA
Although some mine contamination from earlier eras of the conflict (pre-2002 ceasefire) still exists in these districts, it is the contamination from the final phase of the war (2008-2009) that now poses the most immediate and significant threat to returning families. As most of the mines in Kilinochchi were laid by the LTTE after civilians were displaced, returning families are often not aware of where minefields have been laid.
At present, HALO is targeting its efforts around the town of Kilinochchi, where the LTTE laid dense minefields in 2008 in an attempt to defend their de-facto capital. There is a combination of scattered and patterned mine-laying, the majority of which is in villages, often around houses and within gardens. Residential areas are given top priority for clearance, followed by areas used for livelihood activity such as paddy cultivation and grazing.
THE EAST - BATTICALOA AND TRINCOMALEE
In 2007-2008, after government forces regained control of large areas previously occupied by the LTTE, the Government prioritised emergency demining as part of its “re-awakening of the East”. Clearance operations were largely directed by a timeframe to support resettlement, and great swathes of land were subject to Battle Area Clearance (BAC), but not necessarily mineclearance. The number of recorded minefields in the east is significantly lower than in the north, where the more intense fighting took place.