Can Sri Lanka Really Go Mine-Free by 2028?
In Sri Lanka, landmines claimed countless lives and left many more—combatants and civilians alike—crippled, limbless, or permanently scarred. Yet their true infamy is often traced to one shattering moment: the first-ever landmine explosion in Jaffna on 23 July 1983, an event that many regard as the spark that ignited the civil war. On that fateful day, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) buried a landmine on the Jaffna–Palaly main road, barely two kilometers from the heart of the city.
Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke
