ARICA (Chile), Sept 11 — Chile yesterday announced it had disposed of several thousand mines in an area around the city of Arica near its border with Peru.

In 1997, Chile signed up to the Ottawa Treaty which aimed to clear the country of explosives remaining from the period of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship and assist victims of landmines.

A total of 6,095 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines were destroyed yesterday.

According to EFE, 70 army specialists are in charge of detecting, unearthing and disposing of more than 70,000 more mines distributed in another 47 areas of the country by 2020, with the aim to meet its obligation to destroy all the mines in Chileanian territory by then.

The Chilean ministry of defence reactivated the National De-Mining Commission in August and declared an increase in the number of demining personnel beginning in 2016.

A National Humanitarian De-mining Plan was also developed by the government to assist victims of mines and work on mine accident prevention, EFE reported. — Reuters