Private Donation of Mine Detecting Dogs for Sri Lanka

The U.S. Department of State will honor the Marshall Legacy today for its help in raising money for the donation of six landmine-detecting dogs for Sri Lanka.

The dogs, valued at $120,000, will help Sri Lankan humanitarian deminers to detect landmines more efficiently and to speed up the safe return of displaced persons back to their homes. Since 1995, the inter-agency United States Humanitarian Mine Action Program has invested over $3 million dollars to help clear landmines and train Sri Lankans in modern demining techniques.

"We are proud to celebrate this public-private investment that will speed demining operations in Sri Lanka and enhance the peace process there," said Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr., the Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Mine Action who also serves as Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs, at a ceremony at the Department of State today to recognize the donation.

Those honored included the Sri Lankan Association of Greater Washington, the school children of Wyoming under the Children Against Mines Program (CHAMPS), Billie and Don McCoy, Hilda Davis, the Martin Trust Family Foundation, concerned citizens in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, Caterpillar Incorporated, the Chubb Corporation, and the Galleon Group. This initiative was coordinated by the Marshall Legacy Institute in partnership with the Embassy of Sri Lanka and the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

Parts of Sri Lanka are infested by persistent landmines emplaced during two decades of civil war. The Department of State's Quick Reaction Demining Force deployed to Sri Lanka in 2002 to take advantage of the cease-fire concluded that year, returning 32,500 square meters of land to productive use and enabling over 100,000 internally displaced persons to return to their homes and farms. The United States mine action program in Sri Lanka is intended to benefit Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims alike. The mine detecting dogs, currently being trained in Texas, will be integrated in Sri Lanka's own mine action program.

To learn more about the U.S. Department of State's humanitarian mine action programs in Sri Lanka and 29 other countries, its public-private partnerships to support mine action, and its small arms and light weapons abatement efforts, visit www.state.gov/t/pm/wra.

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