Land mines' legacy of conflict ends on Taiwan
Source: AFP |
00:00 UTC+8 June 17, 2013
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AROUND 1,000 people have waded along the beach on Taiwan's Kinmen Island to mark the completion of a seven-year de-mining program in an area that was once a frontline battleground with Chinese mainland.
Men and women rolled up their trousers on Saturday and walked through the water after a clearance operation that underlined warming ties with the mainland.
Kuomintang troops fled to Taiwan at the end of the civil war in 1949 and carpeted the frontline islands of Kinmen and Matsu, just a few kilometers from the southeastern Fujian Province, with tens of thousands of mines.
Taiwan launched a de-mining project seven years ago and military authorities say more than 126,000 land mines have now been cleared from Kinmen.
"The tens of thousands of land mines laid on the beaches of Kinmen and Matsu had haunted the people in the two places," said Wu Yo-chin, deputy magistrate of the Kinmen county.
An official with the Matsu government said the de-mining work there was also nearly complete.
Men and women rolled up their trousers on Saturday and walked through the water after a clearance operation that underlined warming ties with the mainland.
Kuomintang troops fled to Taiwan at the end of the civil war in 1949 and carpeted the frontline islands of Kinmen and Matsu, just a few kilometers from the southeastern Fujian Province, with tens of thousands of mines.
Taiwan launched a de-mining project seven years ago and military authorities say more than 126,000 land mines have now been cleared from Kinmen.
"The tens of thousands of land mines laid on the beaches of Kinmen and Matsu had haunted the people in the two places," said Wu Yo-chin, deputy magistrate of the Kinmen county.
An official with the Matsu government said the de-mining work there was also nearly complete.
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