The UN Mine Action Report on Sri Lanka for 2004 says that nearly 500,000 people in 405 villages in the North and East are believed to be threatened by mines.

Civilians in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullativu, Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampara are at risk, the report said.

The UN report has been issued in anticipation of the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, to be held at the end of November. It states that landmines, unexploded ordinance (UXO) and improvised explosive devices (IED) stemming from almost two decades of armed conflict are causing between 15 and 20 casualties daily.

Mines and UXO in Sri Lanka have been assessed as ‘containable’, provided that the present peace process continues and donor funding for capacity building and operations meet the current demand for expansion and procedural demining.

The report stressed the necessity for continued coordination and quality management in demining operations, gathering and dissemination of data, and management on mine action.

The annual expenditure for mine action in Colombo is nearly US$ 16 million and includes the clearing of nearly 3,000 minefields and 700,000 landmines.

Sri Lanka officially became a party last month to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), which also prohibits the indiscriminate use of landmines and their intentional use on civilians during a war.