Danish Demining Group (DDG) which is a part of the Danish Refugee Council has now completed the mine and UXO clearance of the village of Poonagar, situated in the Eastern district of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. The inhabitants from this village, who in November last year had to flee south, are now starting the task of resettling and rebuilding their homes and life.

As described by Steen Wetlesen, Programme Manager of DDG in Sri Lanka:
“ The area is full of activities, with the returning villagers actively rebuilding their houses, cleaning their compounds, catching their stray cattle and getting on with their life after the long ordeal of 9 month as IDPs.”

Poonagar Village
Poonagar village was ruined when the conflict escalated late last year, with renewed fighting between Government Forces and the Tamil Tigers, forcing the 500 families living there to flee south. The fight left many Un-exploded Ordnances (UXOs) and mines making the return of the villagers almost impossible. DDG started the clearance operation in April and having now completed this, the inhabitants are starting to return and are busy re-settling and rebuilding their village and life.

Poonagar is the first instance where DDG have had to clear an entire village, as normally only areas around strategic places are polluted by mines and UXOs. In this case however, the entire village had seen active fighting. DDG has been active in Sri Lanka since the beginning of 2003 and have cleared more than 5 million square meters and removed more than 12.000 mines and UXOs.

Living in a transit camp
In Killeveddy situated only 6 kilometres from Poonagar, the Government with support from UNHCR, in March this year, built a transit camp to house the IDPs from the area, and in July 2007 this camp accommodated 770 families, awaiting to return to their homes as soon as the mine and UXO clearance was completed.

In this camp, in July, we found Thiagarasa from Poonagar with his family of 7 living in a 10 square meter room made of plastic tarpaulines without windows. They depended on the emergency aid of rice, flour, oil, salt and soap, supplied by Danish Refugee Council and WFP. Thiagarasa and family had fled the fighting in November last year, leaving behind all their belongings and cattle. While fleeing south, a bomb exploded close to the family which killed his wife and wounded the baby.

Back home
In August we again found Thiagarasa and family now in Poonagar, among the 150 families that already had returned and was now busy with the construction of a small house on his land.

“He has cleaned up the area and has been out trying to locate his two cows. Unfortunately he was unsuccessful in finding the cows and very possibly, they could have been among the more than 30 reported mine accidents involving cattle” explained Steen Wetlesen. His future income therefore depends on the rice crop, where the paddy fields still remain to be cleared for mines and UXOs

Life continues
“We have promised Thiagarasa and the other returning families of Poonagar, to do our utmost in clearing the canals and paddy fields in time for the planting season late October. It has been very rewarding to see this small family back home and looking forward to a normal life, with Thiagarasa now married to the sister of his departed wife and the wife now pregnant. We feel privileged to have DDG/DRC being part of bringing back 500 families to their home, land and normal productive life” Steen Wetlesen finishes from Sri Lanka.

End August a local employed driver of DDG was shot dead in Jaffna in the north of Sri Lanka. The work was immediately suspended in order to review the security and show the seriousness of the case, but was restarted on 1st September. With more than 150,000 new IDPs seen in end of 2006, Danish Refugee Council continues its important emergency work, and DDG the important mine clearance to ensure the safe return of the many IDPs.

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