PRESS RELEASE January 12, 2004

JCCP to Start a Humanitarian Demining Project in Sri Lanka

The Japan Center for Conflict Prevention (JCCP) has just concluded an Agreement with the Government of Japan to financially enable the former to carry out its full-scale humanitarian demining operations in the vicinity of Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. The Grant Agreement was signed between H.E. Mr. Akio Suda, Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka and Mr. Eiki Sasai, JCCP Representative in Sri Lanka at the Embassy of Japan in Colombo on January 12, 2004.

The JCCP humanitarian demining project aims to secure peace and stability and to promote rehabilitation and development in Sri Lanka through securing safe land for Internally Displaced Persons. The overall objectives are to repatriate, resettle, and reorganize communities, and revitalize economic and social activities in the mine-cleared areas of Sri Lanka.

This is the first attempt ever for a Japanese organization to engage in demining activities by organizing its own demining team with Japanese specialists and local deminers. To initiate this project, two of JCCP’s staff have undergone training with the Danish Demining Group (DDG), an international mine clearance organization which is, in partnership with JCCP, to provide technical advisors for the project. Additionally, a JCCP field office has been set up in Vavuniya which will serve as the project’s operational base. A team composed of 45 Sri Lankan staff will engage in mine clearance in the vicinity of Vavuniya from March 2004 for a period of ten months. The team will be supervised by one chief technical advisor from DDG and two Japanese technical advisors from JCCP.

JCCP is a Japanese NGO whose mission is to contribute to the prevention and mitigation of violent conflict and the prevention of its recurrence with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Since JCCP started its operation in Sri Lanka in August 2000, it has carried out such programmes as the Interfaith Peace Conference, Peace Building and Development Programmes, and Emergency Relief and Human Rights Education for the Police Force, in collaboration with local NGOs.

Although the Japanese Government’s assistance for JCCP’s humanitarian demining project under January’s Agreement is given for a period of one year, JCCP would like to continue the project for at least three years in order to assure a tangible and substantial outcome. It is JCCP’s fervent wish that its humanitarian demining project will contribute much to the peace building process in Sri Lanka.

UPDATE:2004/1/14