In February 2002, a ceasefire agreement was concluded between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). While the peace process has, to a certain extent stalled, a number of actors including NGOs and UN organizations are striving to establish an atmosphere in which development and peace can be sustainable in the long-term. The estimated 700,000 to 2million landmines in Sri Lanka, however, are hindering reconstruction and development, not to mention the return and resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). With these issues in mind, the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention (JCCP) is fully engaged in humanitarian demining in the Vavuniya district of Sri Lanka, and it was this project which was the focus of the JCCP Sri Lanka presentation on the evening of Wednesday 29th September 2004.
JCCP President Kenichi Ito
delivers his opening remarks
The presentation began with a short address by JCCP President Kenichi Ito, who kindly offered a brief overview of how the JCCP Humanitarian Demining project got off the ground. He was followed by JCCP Technical Advisors Mr. Ryogo Tatsumi and Mr. Yasuhiro Ichishi who each discussed their own personal histories in brief, how they became involved in the project, and a brief overview of actual humanitarian demining in the field.
Each of the presenters used photos, presentation data and even videos to explain the process of being trained by specialists from the Danish Demining Group (DDG), training, working with local Sri Lankan deminers, manually searching for anti-personnel landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the field, and finally, safely removing and disposing of them.
JCCP Humanitarian Demining Technical Advisor Mr. Ryogo Tatsumi
After the detailed presentations, many people in the audience asked thought-provoking questions concerning demining methods, the specifics of living and working in Sri Lanka, how many landmines had been found, and how it felt to be the first Japanese experts actually involved in humanitarian demining. The audience was asked to complete a questionnaire following the lengthy question-and-answer session, and some of their comments have been included below:
JCCP Humanitarian Demining Technical Advisor Mr. Yasuhiro Ichishi

“I had no idea that there were Japanese people actually involved in demining.”

“The explanations of their work in the field were very easy to understand – even for those of us with no technical knowledge in this area.”

Taking questions from the audience

The Sri Lanka Humanitarian Demining Project Presentation was the second in the series of presentations organized by the JCCP Head Office in Tokyo concerning JCCP’s overseas activities, and similar events are planned for the future. For more information on upcoming events as well as more details concerning JCCP’s overseas activities, please refer to JCCP’s homepage, JCCP’s Mail Mag, or email JCCP Head Office at [email protected].

Update: 2004/10/15