HALO employs a system of One Man One Lane ensuring each deminer is responsible for his own lane
Mineclearance in Sri Lanka has been shaped by the war with the LTTE.
Soon after demining started in 1999, it was halted by the fighting. When it resumed in 2002, the creation of the National Steering Committee for Mine Action (NSCMA) paved the way for a more concerted demining effort involving international NGOs, such as HALO. During the final phase of the conflict in 2007-2009 there was a further lull in mineclearance activity until the end of the war in May 2009, when HALO expanded operations to assist with the resettlement of tens of thousands of displaced families.
HALO’s approach is to use skilled survey teams to identify and prioritise problem areas, followed by well-targeted, systematic clearance, using complementary manual and mechanical clearance assets. Accurate survey and close liaison with local communities and government means that valuable clearance resources are deployed where most needed.
In 2002 emergency survey of Jaffna accurately identified the boundaries of hazardous areas in civilian-occupied areas. Indeed, it quickly became apparent which parts of the peninsula were mined and posed most danger to civilians. During the course of that survey, HALO gathered the socio-economic and technical data which enabled clearance tasks to be prioritised by humanitarian requirement. The emphasis for HALO was on accident prevention and to enable agricultural land to be returned to productive use.
Meanwhile, in Jaffna Town, many of the minefields consisted of defensive works built from the rubble of damaged buildings, which were then ‘seeded with mines’. Manual clearance alone in such conditions would have been difficult and in response, HALO deployed armoured mechanical units in order to verify and inspect the ground more rapidly. HALO also focused its clearance assets on the densely laid mine-belts where the vast majority of mine accidents were then taking place.
Since the end of the war in 2009, HALO’s operations in Sri Lanka have expanded rapidly to respond to the need for resettlement of displaced families in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu Districts. Using a small team of experienced expatriates, HALO has now trained 925 national staff, including 600 recent returnees, to conduct both manual and mechanical mine-clearance in their own communities.
Between 2002 and December 2010, HALO Sri Lanka has cleared over 293 hectares (724 acres) of minefields and systematic Battle Area Clearance of over 1,509 hectares (3,729 acres) whilst destroying over 75,900 landmines, 16,200 items of large calibre ammunition and 185,600 bullets. This work was focussed on 270 mainly high density minefields and former battlefields. Our Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams working alongside the Sri Lanka Army Engineers have completed 3,593 emergency ‘call-out’ tasks (including 1,981 in 2010 during the height of the IDP returns process).