Colombo sees horror of landmines

By Kumudini Hettarachchi

A young mother tenderly runs her fingers over the face of her toddler and gently feeds a ball of rice to him. It is motherly love of the highest kind, for this woman is blind. She was not born blind nor has she been blinded by illness. She has lost her precious sight because of man’s cruelty to man. She is the victim of an anti-personnel mine, not in Cambodia or in Afghanistan, but right here in Sri Lanka, up in the north. The searing images of this woman, abandoned by her husband after she lost her sight, along with another man and a woman who have both lost one of their legs to landmines, shown in Colombo last Wednesday told the tragic story not only of the bloody violence that has dogged this country for nearly 25 years but also of the scourge that landmines have posed to men, women and children, the innocent players in a deadly arena.

A dummy wearing a de-mining kit Pix by Berty Mendis

These images brought the harsh reality of landmines, mainly confined to 730 villages in the north and the east, to the hall of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations & Strategic Studies in Colombo 7, at a function held to mark the release of the ‘Landmine Monitor Report 2006 – Toward a Mine-Free World’, concurrently with the global release in Geneva, Switzerland.

And the Landmine Monitor Report – with a separate section on Sri Lanka -- reveals that the Sri Lankan government has estimated that a million landmines were laid in the country by both sides (the other being the LTTE), while the LTTE quotes double that number.

Urging that the assurance of the future disuse of landmines is a must, Ambassador Satnam Jit Singh of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said they called for a commitment from both sides. With the setback in the peace process, there were unconfirmed reports of the re-use of anti-personnel mines, he said.

The ICBL appealed to the Sri Lankan government to show courage and take a bold decision on humanitarian grounds to support the treaty for a world-free of landmines, he said explaining that innocent citizens were the sufferers. Such a decision would lead to international pressure on the other side.

Adding a strong voice to the request to the Sri Lankan government to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty, British High Commissioner Dominick Chilcott said since almost all the landmines have been laid in the north and the east of the country, it is the people who live there who stand to benefit the most from the removal of landmines. “The Sri Lankan army deserves credit for its contribution to date in removing landmines, as do the other de-mining organizations working here. But the administration could do more. It would be a hugely significant gesture to those communities in the north and the east to hear that the government had definitively decided to give up using landmines and that it was going to make this commitment legally binding on itself through becoming a party to the Ottawa Treaty. Doing this now, at a time when tensions are high and when fighting has intensified, would send a particularly strong signal to people in the north and the east,” he said.

“In December 2005, Sri Lanka commendably voted for the universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. The government’s heart is therefore very much in the right place on this question. I would encourage them not to wait for the LTTE but to have the courage of their convictions and act now.”

Amman 2000 plastic circular anti-vehicle mine

Mr. Chilcott urged that laying of new mines must be avoided. “There are reports that anti-personnel mines have been redeployed in the recent fighting. If true, this would be a serious setback to the progress being made to clear mine-contaminated areas and allow the land to be used productively for the good of local communities. And secondly, the government, to its credit, became a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons in September 2004. That convention imposes conditions on the ways landmines can be used, which includes measures such as putting a perimeter fence around mine fields and keeping civilians away.”

Detailing Sri Lanka’s move towards a mine-free land, well-known former civil servant Bradman Weerakoon said the government action on banning mines was contained in a promise at the UN in the General Assembly speech of the Prime Minister in 2002. The LTTE was going to reciprocate by signing the Geneva Call’s Deed of Commitment, renouncing anti-personnel mines, which was the only signal available to non-state actors.

Why should Sri Lanka join in the Mine Ban Treaty, asked Mr. Weerakoon, adding that the government may finally do so – and the lead must be taken by the government, but obviously it would be only if the other side also undertakes to do so, and stays by its promise. “This is a very challenging question made more difficult since today the country is virtually at war with the security forces and the LTTE in armed conflict.”

The Landmine Monitor is a civil society initiative established in 1998 by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) to monitor and report on the implementation of an international disarmament or humanitarian law treaty (the Ottawa Convention). It contains information on landmine use, production, trade, stockpiling, de-mining, casualties and victim assistance in 126 countries and areas.

The Landmine Ban Advocacy Forum in Sri Lanka formed under the auspices of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) in October 2003, comprises representatives of the donor community, mine action agencies, humanitarian agencies, with the Sri Lanka Army as observers.