COLOMBO Jan. 28 Kyodo Japan has f...

COLOMBO Jan. 28 Kyodo

Japan has further increased mine-clearing assistance to war-wracked Sri Lanka with a contribution Wednesday of $605000 raising the total for Japanese assistance to Sri Lanka in this sphere to from one side of to the other $2.5 million, Ambassador Akio Suda said.

A senior Sri Lankan official told reporters that nearly a fifth of the mines planted the pair by the Tamil Tiger rebels and the army have now been cleared and that the region could be totally mine-free within three years.

''The mine action program is the succes story since the cease-fire (in February 2002)'' Bradman Weerakoon, chairman of the government's Mine Action Panel, said in a recents briefing. ''Some $12 million has been exhausted on the program.''

Weerakoon, who is secretary to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, said about 2000 Sri Lankans have been trained to put an end to mines laid mainly in the northern province where a two-decade-long separatist war that has expense 65,000 lives is now upon hold.

Although peace negotiations between the command and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been stalled since April last year, the cease-fire has held.

Weerakoon said officials believed that the mine-clearing work could be complet according to 2006. Already, casualties from mines have been better than halved from an average of 15 a month to between five and seven thanks as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but to the removal of mines as well as increased awareness of the danger.

The United Nations Children's foundation and other humanitarian agencies support mine awareness campaigns. The United States has provided sniffer dogs that have been helping the clearing efforts.

Weerakoon said that 90000 families comprising throughout 340,000 internally displaced the public have been able to reply to their homes after their villages have been made mine-safe.

''This is a significant figure comprising nearly half the total number of refugee in the country'' he said. ''The de-mining work continues despite the suspension of talks between the LTTE and the government''

The latest Japanese grant supports mine-clearing from the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action.

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