Posted by Emily Fleckner on Jan 29, 2012 - 08:32 PM
![A female deminer places a disarmed landmine in the safety area of a minefield in Kilinochchi in the northern peninsula of Sri Lanka, February 24, 2004. [AP Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0127_sri_lanka_deminin1_m.jpg)
I half-heartedly offered to get out and help push the car, but our clever driver managed to liberate our vehicle before I could pull off my armored vest and declare a premature defeat. As it turns out, I'm glad he did. Because I will never forget my walk through that field, where I watched unbelievably brave young women and men undertake some of the most dangerous work in the world -- with tools as small as a toothbrush and as simple as a pick -- in an effort to make the land safe for their neighbors and families. To date, the approximately 1,000 Sri Lankan employees of The HALO Trust have cleared 108,000 anti-personnel mines by hand. In 2011 alone, The HALO Trust's survey teams responded to 915 reports from local communities of unexploded ordnance, recovering over 6,000 items such as grenades, mortars and rockets.
Another amazing demining fact? It turns out there aren't any fancy scanners or high-tech mine removal gadgets that can compete with old-fashioned sweat, discipline, and patience when it comes to picking mines out of the ground. Our HALO hosts showed us how each employee is assigned his or her own lane, about a meter wide and cordoned off with string. I watched as young war widow (one of nearly 250 women employed at HALO) ran a simple metal detector over a thin strip of land. We didn't have to wait long before we heard the high-pitched whir indicating a metal object was in the ground just inches away from her plastic face guard. She carefully put down the detector, picked up a small hoe, and began digging fearlessly toward the offending area.
Katy Bondy, my guide, leaned over and whispered through her plastic mask: "Very exciting!"
"Yes," I whispered, as I slowly inched behind her. As luck would have it, our deminer unearthed a bottle cap.
I continued gingerly across the field to the remnants of a destroyed home. Several meters away, tattered yellow skull-and-crossbones warning tape divided HALO's field from a tarp home on the other side. The ruined home before me belonged to the family living under that tarp. It was clearly once a sturdy stone structure with steps leading to a raised floor and a hand-built well nearby. The house, yard and well were dotted with red stakes indicating where HALO had located and removed mines -- just below the last step leading down from the house, for example, or under the patch of ground where a child would stand to draw water from the well.
Looking across the field of red stakes, it was hard not to wonder what was left underground -- not just in this field, but across all of Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. Landmines, of course, do so much more than kill and maim people. They cast a chilling shadow upon agricultural efforts, emotional and psychological healing, economic development and community cohesion. Their removal is essential to all other efforts that NGOs or the Sri Lankan government undertake in the area. It was humbling to spend an hour experiencing the kind of fear that Sri Lankans in Kilinochchi live with every day: the fear of uncertain ground.
The State Department is a proud funder of The HALO Trust in Sri Lanka. If you would like to learn more, please visit HALO's website.
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Comments
Ananda K. in Australia writes:
It is extremely sad hoe US State Dept is trying to sabotage good work on ground in SL by supporting LTTE rump in US who funded these destruction for thirty years. Mr Blake who was the US envoy in Colombo must know better. It is a shame he has been entangled in agenda to destroy the harmony created by the end of the war. Support SL rather than threaten. Us was a good friend but not any more for Sri Lankan in Sri Lanka. embesidor
Posted on Wed Mar 21, 2012
It is extremely sad hoe US State Dept is trying to sabotage good work on ground in SL by supporting LTTE rump in US who funded these destruction for thirty years. Mr Blake who was the US envoy in Colombo must know better. It is a shame he has been entangled in agenda to destroy the harmony created by the end of the war. Support SL rather than threaten. Us was a good friend but not any more for Sri Lankan in Sri Lanka. embesidor
Posted on Wed Mar 21, 2012
Jessica in Hungary writes:
Excellent read. Thanks Emily and Halo Trust for all your hard work! Regards from Budapest.
Posted on Fri Feb 03, 2012
Excellent read. Thanks Emily and Halo Trust for all your hard work! Regards from Budapest.
Posted on Fri Feb 03, 2012
Arnold B. in the United Kingdom writes:
Sadly the miones don't even look dangerous more like a can of food.
Posted on Mon Jan 30, 2012
Sadly the miones don't even look dangerous more like a can of food.
Posted on Mon Jan 30, 2012
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