Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlsrilanka



Sri Lanka <![CDATA[Sri Lanka is extensively contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) resulting from two decades of armed conflict between the government and the LTTE seeking a separate homeland for Tamils in the north and east. Sri Lanka last submitted a voluntary Article 7 report in June 2005 that identified 12.6km2 of land (308 mined areas in eight regions) known to be contaminated by antipersonnel mines and 136km2 of suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) (2,341 SHAs in 10 regions). The Article 7 report pointed out that this was a rough estimate, partly based on 3,008 SLA maps of minefields, and actual contamination might prove much less.

In 2006, Sri Lanka reported that of 730 villages contaminated with mines, 173 had been cleared, 250 were in the process of being demined and the remainder would be tasked after technical survey. Contamination included belts of Pakistani-made P4 mines laid by the SLA and nuisance minefields placed by the LTTE. However, the government has acknowledged it does not have precise knowledge of the total extent of contamination.

The 2002 cease-fire agreement began to collapse in mid-2006 and conflict intensified, resulting in additional (and unsurveyed) mine/ERW contamination. Furthermore, government allegations that the LTTE emplaced new mines, although not confirmed independently, suggest the problem may have worsened. Recent government use of air- and ground-delivered ordnance and LTTE artillery attacks has also increased contamination by unexploded ordnance (UXO).

The northern Jaffna peninsula, a focal point of fighting, is the most severely affected area. About half of all mines laid in Sri Lanka are estimated to be in the peninsula and to affect some 228 villages, excluding military-occupied High Security Zones (HSZ).

Sri Lanka has some 62km2 of HSZ—areas near military emplacements, camps, barracks or checkpoints, often protected by a defensive perimeter of mines. These zones are not accessible to demining agencies. Since the flare-up in fighting between LTTE and government forces in August 2006, the SLA also put other clearance tasks off-limits to operators because of their proximity to SLA positions.

Mines and UXO pose an immediate threat to internally displaced persons (IDPs) as well as an obstacle to their resettlement and a serious long-term challenge to economic reconstruction. UN agencies estimated there were more than 425,000 IDPs in March 2007; by end May 2008, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) put the number at 182,802.

Landmine Monitor identified at least 34 new mine/ERW casualties in 2007 in Sri Lanka, including six people killed and 28 injured in 14 incidents. Two were Buddhist monks, four were security forces, and the others were civilian. UNDP recorded 18 civilian casualties; four people killed and 14 injured in 11 incidents: 11 were male (eight men and three boys) and seven were female (four women and three girls). This total excludes casualties from command-detonated Claymore devices/roadside bomb attacks. Antivehicle mines caused five casualties, antipersonnel mines caused three, and ERW caused eight; the causes of two casualties were unknown. There were no deminer casualties during clearance operations in 2007.

The increased fighting is also said to have resulted in a significant number of military casualties, but figures were not available.

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