Mechanical clearance
MAG use a Bozena mini-flail to perform area reduction and quality assurance tasks on land cleared manually. Recently the team began work on an area of land owned by the Kathirvelu family for four generations. The land had been occupied by the Sri Lankan army from 1998-2001. It was a known mined area and was manually cleared by the Humanitarian Demining Unit (HDU) in mid-2002, but not to international standards. Mr Kathiruvelu and his son began to clear and plant on the land. They began planting in an area 20m away from the land that had previously been cleared. Whilst working there they discovered two anti-personnel mines. It appeared that they were the result of nuisance mining (landmines laid outside the mapped minefield). The family became concerned that the whole area was mined and feared for their safety. MAG are now using the Bozena to verify the entire area. Once completed Mr Kathiruvelu and his family will be able to cultivate crops of tomato, cabbage, chilli trees and lemons.
In recent months the Bozena has been used to verify a total area of 268,750 sq/m.
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