PARANTHAN (Sri Lanka): The amazing thing about a group of Sri Lankans hunting for landmines in a rebel-held area may not be that they wear sandals and use crude rakes, but that only two of them have died.

The deminers, working for a humanitarian group run by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), have been toiling for the past two years in Wanni in northern Sri Lanka to clear one of the legacies of nearly two decades of war.

They have no proper training, lack even basic protective equipment and readily admit they are not professionals.

“The problem right now is there is no foreign assistance,” said P. Johan, managing director of the Humanitarian Demining Unit, which was set up by the rebel-controlled Tamil Rehabilitation Organization.

The deminers, some wearing shorts and all wearing rubber sandals, prodded with their rakes in a field in Paranthan, a small village that was once a frontline in the fighting between the rebels and government troops.

“We have cleared 91,000 mines in the last two years, but we think there are still about two million mines,” a worker said.

“We think that with foreign help we could clear all the mines within five years.”

International donors have been reluctant to help because of the island’s long-running civil war. The LTTE have been fighting for a separate state in the north and east and tens of thousands of people have died.

But demining efforts and financing interest from the international community have picked up since the government and LTTE signed a ceasefire.—Reuters