Details of mine safe areas in Jaffna released

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 00:17 GMT]
The coordinating office for the removal of land mines in Jaffna peninsula, situated in Jaffna secretariat, in a communiqué issued Saturday, said mine clearing activities in areas permitted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is nearing completion and released details concerning the areas cleared of land mines.

The mine clearing activities were initiated in all areas except those declared either as High Security Zones (HSZ) or war zones and included large tracts of paddy fields and arable high lands.

The full scale land mine clearing activities were initiated during the period of signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) followed by Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in 2002.

During the six year period between 2002 till the end of 2007, large swathes of land in various parts of the peninsula inhabited by public were cleared of land mines.

A total of 114, 74,000 square meters in the peninsula have been declared safe for civilian movements.

• In Themaraadchi, 53, 65,000 square meters have been cleared.
• In the entire Valigaamam area comprising Jaffna, Valigaamam North and Valigaamam East 51, 66,000 square metres have been declared as areas devoid of land mines.
• In Vadamarradchi 6, 05,000 about square metres have been declared safe for civilian movement.
• In the Islets a total of 3, 36,000 square metres of land has been completely cleared of land mines.

However, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has not permitted any demining activities in areas in Valigaamam North near Palaly, declared as HSZ.