Tsunami waters raise landmine fears in Sri Lanka

[shraby]

POINT PEDRO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) -- Already haunted by fears of a new tsunami or spread of disease, survivors picking through debris of entire towns to recover corpses at Sri Lanka's northern tip face a new danger -- floating landmines.

Nestled near a border dividing the north between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels, the area around the small fishing village of Point Pedro -- devasted by giant tsunami waves on Sunday -- is now littered with plastic landmines uprooted by floodwaters.

"There are land mines spread all over. Many of them have moved, hundreds are floating," said Sinnathurai Kathiravelpillai, a district medical officer working near Point Pedro.

Mine disposal units estimate there are around one million mines scattered mostly around northern Sri Lanka, a legacy of a bloody two-decade civil war that killed 64,000 people until a ceasefire three years ago.

(more)
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/sri.lanka.mines.reut/index.html>

Speechless..don't they have enough to deal with?

[Pithy Cherub]

1. The abject horror of it all keeps getting worse.

Wondering whether the UN's goup that handles landmines even has people available to assist. I keep thinking of all the children that are maimed every year by old landmines. This is just tragic.

[jellybelly]

2. before and after Tsunami

http://www.davesdaily.com/out2.php?id=2337&url=http://www.davesdaily.com/pictures/280-tsunami-satellite.htm

this pic is horrifying.

[drhilarius]

3. I'm not a religious man...

in fact, I'm an atheist, but sometimes.

Revelation 6:7-8

7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

4. not even

total crock--
Revelation is about the most mis-interpreted document in history.

The Christians are saying "see"--the evil ones are dying.
God is obviously on "our" side.

Ticket for Chimp to go for it now.

News at 6-
Nukes unleased on Iran.:nuke:

[Vidar]

5. Another gift from the USA, one of the few countries which won't

disavow their use.

[RafterMan]

6. Are you saying those mines came from the USA?

Link, please.

[Vidar]

7. No, obviously not. Most others, however, have repented.

[Ladyhawk]

8. Where did these landmines come from???

I can't remember anyone being at war with Sri Lanka / Ceylon. Was there fighting there during WWII???

[Karenina]

9. First come folks running around with guns

shooting everything in sight FOR YEARS.
Then comes the BIG WAVE destroying everything the toy soldiers haven't.
Then come hungry crocodiles looking for Sunday brunch. EVERYONE KNOWS what THEY look like...
THEN the wet ground yields up ordnance that may or may not be recognized by ordinary folk, floating about, set to explode...

Scotty, BEAM ME UP, NOW!