A graduation ceremony for the first Sri Lankan Army Engineers trained under the U. S. Department of State's Humanitarian Demining Project, was held yesterday at the Sri Lankan School of Military Engineering, Embilipitiya.

The training was conducted by RONCO Consulting Corporation, a U.S.-based company.

The training is a continuation of U. S. humanitarian demining assistance to Sri Lanka. In August 2003 the U. S. Government signed an agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka to provide humanitarian demining training to the Sri Lankan Army. The training began on August 24 and will continue through February 2004. It will cost approximately U.S.$2.2 million.

The objective of this new phase of demining assistance is to prepare Sri Lankan military forces to clear mined areas of Sri Lanka to international standard. The U. S. Government is the first donor to work with the Sri Lankan Army on humanitarian demining.

At the graduation ceremony, Mr. Dean Thompson, the U.S. Embassy's Economic Officer, was happy to note that the Sri Lankan army's engineers will "take on the tough job of reclaiming homes, reclaiming land for farming, restoring fields for children to play in, and clearing sites on which hospitals and schools can be built. In short, people are willing to make sacrifices in order to give other Sri Lankans back their lives."