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In post-war Sri Lanka, women take on deadly duty of clearing explosives

Agence France Presse - October 5, 2010

Mel Gunasekera, Mannar – Valmathi Jegadas is a different sort of mine clearer to the testosterone-fueled explosives specialists portrayed in the 2008 Oscar-winning Hollywood hit, The Hurt Locker.

A farmer's wife in northern Sri Lanka, Jegadas, 37, earns $200 a month risking her life, and she admits being scared each time she steps into the mine fields that are a legacy of the island's long and bloody civil war.

"This is the best-paying job in my village," said Jegadas, who has three children, adding that her mother and husband were both killed in 2007 by artillery attacks.

Since joining the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) nearly a year ago, Jegadas says she has disabled more than 700 mines in the Mannar district.

She works along former defense lines of the separatist Tamil Tigers, the rebel guerrilla force that fought the government for decades before it was finally defeated in May last year.

Increasingly, international humanitarian organizations are training women to find and defuse mines.

"Women carry the burden after the war in most homes. They want the money, and they don't take short-cuts when clearing mines," said Nigel Peacock, a technical advisor for FSD in Mannar.

"Demining is probably one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, but these ladies are very committed. They do a better job than the boys."

The government's social services ministry estimates the war-torn north and east regions of Sri Lanka are home to some 90,000 war widows.

More than "50 percent of female-headed homes are single parents under 30 years of age supporting their own and extended families," said Visaka Dharmadasa, director of the Association for War-Affected Women.

With most post-war jobs in fisheries, construction or farming, women have few options for a steady income. "And demining pays well. It is considered a high-status, respectable job," said Imelda Sukumar, a government agent for the district of Mullaittivu.

Wearing body armor, a ballistic face-shield and helmet, and carrying their tools, each day they crawl into mine fields laid in jungle shrubs and muddy trenches.

Pushparani Thavaratnam, 38, is another woman prepared to take the risk for the financial rewards and a sense of helping her community recover from war.

"If I tell you I don't get scared, then I'm lying," she said after defusing a rusty anti-personnel mine with her bare hands.

The Sri Lankan military estimates more than a million land mines and other unexploded devices were planted in the last few years of the war, threatening the lives of civilians who are now returning to their villages.

The army runs the largest de-mining operation, while organizations like FSD, the Mine Action Group and the Halo Trust are also working in Sri Lanka.

But the international effort is running into budget problems less than 18 months after a massive military offensive finally wiped out the Tigers. The United Nations estimates it takes only $3 to lay a mine, and $1,000 to remove one.

FSD is short of $2 million to maintain its annual $9 million budget for Sri Lanka this year as donors scale back operations.

"There's still plenty more mines out there. We are running out of funds to put more deminers on the ground," Peacock said.

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