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Demining project on Kinmen halted after protests by residents

ROC Central News Agency

08/12/10 22:35:06

By Han Nai-kuo

Kinmen, Dec. 10 (CNA) A project to clear landmines on the Taiwan-controlled outlying island of Kinmen off China's Fujian province was temporarily halted Wednesday after local residents complained that the project had obliterated nearly 1,000 graves of their ancestors.

The Kinmen defense Command ordered that all demining operations in a 20-hectare area in Kuningtou village be suspended, pending consultations with the island's residents. Kuningtou was the site of a 1949 battle in which Republic of China forces defeated two invading regiments of China's People's Liberation Army.

Li Chao-chin, head of the village of Kuningtou, said most of the graves in the area marked for demining did not have headstones, and that it would be extremely difficult now for the residents to locate their ancestors' graves.

Lee Wen-chun, head of the Chinning Township, where the village of Kuningtou is located, said the residents are demanding that their ancestors' graves be restored to their original conditions.

Noting that many of graves could no longer be distinguished, Lee said the military may need to build a shrine for collective ancestor worship by local residents.

Some of the residents have threatened to take legal action to settle the dispute and seek compensation from the defense command.

The shores of Kinmen -- Taiwan's farthest outpost in the military standoff with China -- were carpeted with landmines during the peak hostilities between the two sides in the 1950s.

In the 1950s and 1960s, many civilians were killed or maimed when they accidentally stepped on the explosive devices.

As cross-strait tensions eased, the government lifted the wartime regulations in 1992 and ended Kinmen's status as a combat zone.

The move allowed the island to open up to tourism, prompting the need to clear the landmines from areas of Kinmen no longer under military control.