Taiwan islet to clear landmines as China ties grow

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan will finish clearing about 70,000 landmines by 2013 from an outlying island that was once a front-line battlefield with China but is now being developed for civilian use, officials said on Friday.

A military team formed earlier this year would clear mines from 153 fields spread over 850 acres of Kinmen, an island about 2 km off the coast of China, the Kinmen Defence Command said in a statement. The job began in 1996 with foreign expertise, and more than half the work is done.

Mine-clearing is expected to help Kinmen build up tourism and trade with its economically powerful neighbour.

The mines were laid as part of a 30-year confrontation between China and Taiwan, with Kinmen a front line because of its location.

Beijing has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has pledged to bring the democratic island's 23 million people under its rule, by force if necessary.

But the two sides are growing closer economically, with Kinmen again on the front line as a 20-minute ferry ride from the Chinese city of Xiamen.

Mine-clearing to date has killed two foreign experts, both from Zimbabwe, and injured a third. The government has paid total compensation of T$136 million ($4.16 million) to 114 survivors, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.