Prince Harry, who is currently on a visit to the US has said Sri Lanka is among the countries where landmines can be eradicated in the next five years, if funding is sustained, UK based Express News Agency said.

Harry gave a speech in support of the Halo Trust at a British embassy reception in Washington attended by US policy-makers, supporters of the anti-landmine charity and potential donors.

The royal, who is patron of the trust’s 25th anniversary appeal, told the guests: “My mother, who believed passionately in this cause, would be proud of my association with Halo. In her special way, she adopted it as her own. She would join me – along with all of you, I’m sure – in praising Halo for the amazing work that it has done over the past quarter century, and in hoping that one day soon its humanitarian work will be done.”

He added: “At any one time, HALO has seven thousand de-miners in the field, striving to protect people, and banish the fear that pervades the lives of millions around the world. In Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Kosovo, in Somalia, Georgia and Armenia, the threat of landmines could be eradicated in the next five years, if funding can be sustained. If it were stepped up, in the next 10 years, countries like Cambodia, Angola, Colombia, Afghanistan, Burma and even Zimbabwe might have their landmine crises eliminated for good.”

Harry’s comments came at the end of the first day of his tour of the US where he received an ecstatic reception from ordinary Americans and first lady Michelle Obama.

He was greeted by screaming female admirers when he opened a photographic exhibition, on Washington’s Capitol Hill yesterday, promoting the work of the anti-landmine charity the Halo Trust.

Source: Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)