Taiwan's military vows to clear mines on island as per schedule for cross-Strait

TAIPEI, July 22 -- A senior military leader of Taiwan pledged Tuesday to complete the clearance of mines in the Kinmen Island area by 2013 as per the schedule, in order to meet the requirements for the ever-growing exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.

General Yang Tien-Hsiao, commanding general of Taiwan's army, said Taiwan's mine-clearing troops have completed 47 percent of the whole task, and they will remove all the mines on schedule.

The Kinmen area includes the Greater Kinmen island, the Lesser Kinmen island, and some other islets, where more than 70,000 mines were placed by Taiwan troops last century, covering a total area of 3.45 million square meters.

Taiwan set up a special mine-clearance brigade in 2007 for the purpose and so far, they had swept 1.17 million square meters of the mine area and removed over 28,000 mines. Trees were planted on some of the previous mine zones.

Taiwan's mine-diggers are now gearing up their efforts to do the job in a seashore area on the Lesser Kinmen island, which is designated as the venue for a cross-Straits swimming program jointly held by Kinmen and the mainland city of Xiamen. The twin cities stand face-to-face across the strait, with a distance of less than 10 kilometers.

Taiwan's military has also agreed to remove the anti-tank barriers on the seashore, to make room for the upcoming cross-Straits event.

The mine-clearing troops are a brainchild of Yang, who used to be commander of the Kinmen defense troops. He is also known for his efforts to improve relations between the military and civilians in Taiwan.