Turkey vows to clear up 1 million landmines in southeast

ANKARA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish government promised to clear nearly 1 million landmines believed to be buried in the southeastern regions of the country, Turkish Today's Zaman reported Monday.

The landmine issue came under the spotlight again after a 14- year-old boy was killed on Friday in a landmine explosion while collecting mushrooms in the rural Yuksekova district of Hatay province.

A recent study by Istanbul Aydin University Disaster Education, Application and Research Center suggests that there are more than 982,000 landmines buried in Turkish southeastern area in order to guard against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party militants.

A total of 975 people, including 128 children, have been killed in landmine explosions in the past 12 years.

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