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Weapons of war leave trail of death
By Chris Kamalendran
With the ceasefire in progress, the number of war casualties has been almost zero during the past two years, but deadly incidents caused by exploding grenades and mortars have shell-shocked the country, especially during the past few weeks.

Last Sunday, a boy was killed, while three others of the same family were injured, when a mortar that was being smashed up for scrap iron exploded. Eight-year-old Sarath Weerasinghe died, when his father Sudath Weerasinghe (40) who made a living on selling scrap iron had smashed up a live mortar he had picked up from the firing range at the Saliyapura Army camp in Anuradhapura. Mr. Weerasinghe himself was seriously injured in the explosion, that also injured his mother and another son.

The questions that arise are how do live ammunition find their way into residential areas and what action is the military taking to prevent such incidents occurring.
"My uncle usually collects old iron pieces and smashes them before selling them. That day he was doing what he usually did when there was a sudden explosion," an eyewitness Ms. Mudiyansege Rani said.

Still in shock, Sarath's mother, Vasanthi Perera, a minor employee at the Anuradhapura hospital said she was at work when she was told her family had been injured in an accident. Mr. Weerasinghe still recovering from his injuries said, he regularly went to the Saliyapura Army camp to collect used ammunition shells from the firing range.

"I usually collect used bullets and other metal. That day I dug a bit deep and found what I thought were some old mortars and brought them home. When I was smashing one of them, it exploded," he said. Police who found 53 more mortar shells in his house said they believed they were used shells, but did not rule out the possibility that there could be live ones among them. This was the second tragedy within a week.

In the earlier incident, three brothers aged 3, 10 and 11, were killed in Habarana in a grenade explosion. According to investigations, a soldier, a neighbour, had buried three grenades in his garden. To dig a hole, he had borrowed a mammoty from the children's father, saying he wanted to bury some balloons. The children who overheard this, later went to the neighbour's garden and dug up the hole through curiosity. There, instead of balloons, they found some objects, which they did not know were grenades.

While playing with the grenades, they pulled the pins, again out of curiosity. Two did not explode, but the third did, killing all three children. The solider was arrested and investigations are continuing.On November 15, six people were killed in the village of Kattiyawa at Eppawala and three others were killed in August at Aralaganwila in similar explosions.

Many of these incidents occurred in the North-Central Province, giving rise to speculation that large quantities of explosives were being smuggled out from the once war-torn North-East Province. Early this year, a soldier was arrested with 200 grammes of high explosives in Trincomalee.

Military Spokesman Colonel Sumedha Perera said most of the explosives which are being unearthed now, leading to many explosions, had been smuggled out during the height of the military operations. "We will take stern action against those found attempting to smuggle explosives or those detected with such items. We also hope to conduct public awareness programmes on what to do when any suspicious looking objects were found," he said.

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