WUNRN
Also Via Women's Livelihoods -
PWESCR
SRI LANKA - WOMEN REMOVE LANDMINES
Egambaram Renathani (centre) is part of an
all-female team training to remove hundreds of thousands of landmines laid
during
After the war, one of the few jobs available is clearing explosives.
The women are taking back war-torn northern
In the aftermath of nearly three decades of
brutal civil war, the men are dead, held by the army or have simply
disappeared.
The war is two years over, but with as many
as 40,000 civilians killed, according to UN estimates, much of the north is
still barely populated and hardly rebuilt. There is little economy.
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A major reason is a land
still blighted by landmines.
Both sides of the conflict laid mines in
For decades during its separatist war against
the government, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - known to the world as
the Tamil Tigers - had jungle factories turning out thousands of landmines
every week. The army laid its own fields.
Now in the aftermath of the fighting, young
women are the sole breadwinners in thousands of families, and they are taking
up one of the few jobs going; the difficult and dangerous task of clearing
their scarred land, mine by mine.
Yogalingam Rubaganthy, 29, a de-miner for a
year, is helping to train the second all-women team run by UK-based Mines
Advisory Group, funded by the aid arm of the Australian government.
''It's difficult work. It's hot and it's dry
and it is difficult to be in the field all day [and to] concentrate,'' she
says.
''But [it] is possible for women to do the
work, they have the ability.''
She lost her father, one sister and two
brothers when her home in Kilinochchi was shelled. She has one younger brother
left, who is now back at school.
''That's the main reason we are all here. We
have responsibilities for our families. I must look after my family now.''
She sees benefit for the country too. Fleeing
the fighting, she spent months in an internment camp for Tamils displaced by
the war.
''The camps are not a nice place to live, and
many people are still there. They need their lands free from mines so they can
come home, come back to [their] livelihoods.''
But clearing
The Tamil Tigers spent years laying vast
minefields, stretching almost across the entire island, in an attempt to build
a physical barrier that would separate the Tamil-dominated north from the
Sinhalese south.
But in the final weeks of the conflict, as
they fled the advancing Sri Lankan army, the Tigers took to ''nuisance
mining'', laying mines without pattern.
They laid mines around trees, near houses and
wells or on paths; anywhere where troops and people would be likely to tread.
The advisory group's technical operations
manager, Magnus Rundstrom, says de-mining teams clear villages first, checking
for mines in and around homes, near wells and along paths. The next priority is
farmland, as most people rely on what they can grow on their land for a living.
There are mines laid deep in the jungle too,
but these are a lower priority.
As he tests the new de-miners' skills, Mr
Rundstrom says in conservative
At 24 years old, Egambaram Renathani is head
of her household. Her two brothers and a sister were killed by shelling.
Today she is being taught how to check for
tripwires.
''I am learning for one week. It is difficult
but it is important for my country. I am proud to do this job.''