SLA mines plague Jaffna residents

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The left foot of a school girl called Kalpana Kanagalingam was blown off when she stepped on an anti-personnel pressure mine which was buried in the garden of her house.

The girl is a student of Kopay Saravananda Vithiyalalam. Around the same time a fifteen year old school boy lost his right foot while taking his father's cattle to pasture. Both children were admitted to the Jaffna hospital.

Last week three people lost their right feet on a single day in different parts of Jaffna.

One of these was a 26 year old girl who went to collect firewood near the SLA bunkers at Kondavil.

The other incidents were in Puththur and Alaveddy. Community leaders in Jaffna expressed concern today that no systematic action is possible under the present circumstances.

They said that apart from the poster campaign launched recently by the UNICEF, no effort has been made by any one in Jaffna to tackle the problem.

They are of the opinion that a practical program to remove the anti personnel mines that have been strewn in many parts of Jaffna should be developed in conjunction with concerned international agencies.