200,000 mines removed by HDU - report

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 July 2003, 13:41 GMT]
Humanitarian Demining Unit (HDU), the land-mine removal arm of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) operating in Vanni area, has removed and destroyed 182,944 landmines, a report issued by the HDU said.

HDU has constructed security fences around 8,713,415 square metes of area in 219 different regions out of the estimated 1,419,861,357 sqm (~1.5 billion square meters) of mine infested area in the Vanni region, the report further said.

HDU has cleared landmines, facilitating resettlement and safe use of 41,225,228 sq.m of land area, the report said.

During May and June months alone, HDU removed 5355 landmines. HDU's work is primarily concentrated in areas recovered from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control, noted the report.

Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) which is supported by Tamil expatriates around the world, provides the necessary funding for the operation of the HDU.

TRO officials said that HDU's operations are to be expanded to cover areas in Batticaloa district.