US embassy cable - 03COLOMBO1488

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 001488 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, PM, PM/HDP 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, EAID, KHDP, CE, LTTE - Peace Process 
SUBJECT:  U.S.-sponsored humanitarian demining training 
program kicks off at military base in south 
 
Refs:  (A) Colombo-PM/HDP 08/25/03 class e-mail 
-      (B) Colombo 1430, and previous 
 
1.  (U) This message is Sensitive but Unclassified -- 
Please handle accordingly. 
 
2.  (U) SUMMARY:  A major State Department-sponsored 
humanitarian demining training program for the Sri 
Lankan (SLA) Army has kicked off at a base in the south. 
The project, which has already received upbeat press 
coverage, serves to reinforce strong U.S. support for 
Sri Lanka's peace process.  END SUMMARY. 
 
3.  (U) A State Department-sponsored humanitarian 
demining training program for the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) 
kicked off on August 25.  The training program, which is 
budgeted at USD 2.2 million, is taking place at a base 
for SLA engineers located in Embilipitiya, a town in 
southern Sri Lanka.  The program, conducted by the RONCO 
Corporation, will train SLA officers and enlisted 
personnel in internationally accepted humanitarian 
demining methods.  Designed to contain both training and 
operational elements, the program is scheduled to take 
place from late August 2003 through February 2004. The 
program is set to train approximately two hundred SLA 
personnel, who will utilize their new skills in 
government-sponsored demining and unexploded ordnance 
(UXO) removal efforts in the northern district of Jaffna 
and in the east.  (Note:  The north/east bears the brunt 
of the landmine/UXO problem in Sri Lanka, with UNDP 
estimates of roughly one million landmines and thousands 
of tons of UXO present.) 
 
4.  (U) The RONCO team consists of six personnel -- four 
Americans, one Canadian, and one Swede -- who will train 
the Sri Lanka Army in all areas of humanitarian 
demining, including emergency medical training for 
demining-linked injuries.  RONCO chief of party Fredrik 
Palsson told poloff on August 21 that cooperation with 
the SLA for the demining training has been 
overwhelmingly positive thus far.  He added that the 
team was pleased with the facilities provided by the SLA 
in Embilipitiya, a rural area in Sri Lanka's deep south. 
Stressing the high level of professionalism in the SLA 
honed after years of war, Palsson predicted that 
training would proceed at a more advanced level than in 
other countries where RONCO had worked in the past. 
 
5.  (U) The project has already received outstanding 
press coverage.  The August 22 signing of the U.S.-GSL 
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the project by 
Charge' Entwistle and Defense Secretary Austin Fernando 
received enormous play in English-, Sinhala-, and Tamil- 
language newspapers.  (Note:  The MoU is contained in 
Ref A.)  Front-page coverage was the norm.  Television 
and radio coverage was also robust, with state-owned and 
independent broadcasters featuring the story in their 
August 22 news broadcasts. 
 
6.  (SBU) COMMENT:  Given the extent of the landmine/UXO 
problem, humanitarian demining is a key issue in Sri 
Lanka, especially as more and more displaced persons 
attempt to return to their points of origin in war-torn 
areas.  As reviewed in Mission's humanitarian demining 
country plan for Sri Lanka (see Ref B), U.S. demining 
assistance reinforces our strong support for the peace 
process.  The Embilipitiya project follows up on two 
USG-sponsored quick reaction (QRDF) teams, which demined 
in Jaffna to rave reviews in 2002/03.  It is positive 
that the training project is taking place in the south, 
as it highlights that U.S. assistance efforts are 
national in scope.  The ultimate impact of the project, 
however, will be where it is most needed, i.e., the war- 
torn north/east.  END COMMENT. 
 
7.  (U) Minimize considered. 
 
ENTWISTLE