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Control Yuan lauds Kinmen demining

Control Yuan members Huang Huang-hsiung, left, and Liu Hsing-shan, second left, discuss mine-clearing work with members of the Army Engineers Corps in Chinning Township, Kinmen County, yesterday. Huang and Liu visited Kinmen to check the progress of the Army Engineers Corps in clearing more than 70,000 mines on over 150 minefields left on the island. PHOTO: CNA

Control Yuan members Liu Hsing-shan (劉興善) and Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) visited Kinmen yesterday to inspect work in mine-clearing.

Huang and Liu lauded the Army Engineers Corps for its demining team’s progress in clearing the explosives.

The team was established in April last year with the task of clearing the more than 70,000 mines on over 150 minefields left on the island.

It has vowed to complete its mission before 2013.

Huang and Liu were accompanied by Lieutenant General Chang Jung-chung (張榮中) of the Kinmen Defense Command.

Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Chu-feng (李炷烽) was also present on their visit to a minefield in Chinning Township (金寧).

The same minefield was affected by a major fire last October.

During the visit, the Control Yuan members listened to a briefing by Colonel Ku Chien-chien (古鑑今), captain of the demining team.

Ku said that since April last year, the team has cleared 20 minefields covering about 865,000m² A total of 13,200 mines, or 25.4 percent of the total, were cleared during that period, he said.

Ku said that the team was already 1.75 percent ahead of schedule in achieving its goal of clearing Kinmen of all remaining mines by 2013.

Noting that the remainder of the task, if contracted out to foreign demining experts, would cost about NT$5.8 billion (US$180.4 million) to complete, Ku said the demining efforts would be beneficial in terms of Kinmen’s development, as well as improving the country’s international image.

After listening to the briefing, Huang and Liu praised the demining team’s progress toward achieving its goal.

Chinning Township Mayor Lee Wen-chun (李文俊) and members of the township council were also present to express their hope that the minefields would be handed over to the township’s residents for farming after they were cleared.

In response, Huang said he agreed with the idea and that researchers would determine the practicability of the military giving up the land.
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