60,000 landmines destroyed in Muhamalai minefield, Sri Lanka

SUMMARY: During the final stages of Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war, Muhamalai made up the Forward Defense Line between the Sri Lankan Army and LTTE forces. Kantha Samey was living in the village of Intherapuram with her eight children when it was over run by the fighting. Like hundreds of other families across Muhamalai, she was forced to flee her home. Even when the conflict ended in 2009, it was too dangerous to return—tens of thousands of landmines had been laid by both sides, forming a minefield three times the size of New York’s Central Park.