US hands over sniffer dogs to SLA de-mining unit in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 August 2005, 18:21 GMT]
The USA government Tuesday handed 7 trained sniffer dogs to the De-Mining Unit of the Sri Lanka Army, which is stationed in the Palaly military base in Jaffna district. SLA troops Wednesday morning deployed these sniffer dogs to detect mines in the Avarankal east area.

Mr. Evan William Owen, Political Officer of the US Embassy in Colombo and Mr. Perry F.Ballimore of the Marshal Leashky Institute in the USA, which handles the training of sniffer dogs, participated in the handing over event.

Security was beefed up in the area where the US diplomats visited, sources said.

The De-Mining Co-ordinating Unit operating in the Jaffna district Secretariat was not informed of handing over of the sniffer dogs to SLA De-Mining Unit and operation at Avarankal east, sources said.

District Secretariat De-Mining Co-ordinating Unit did not wish to comment about this issue, TamilNet sources said.