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Two new contracts in the area of mine action funded by the European Union have been signed today

Countries
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sources
EU
Publication date
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These are the contracts named General Assessment of the mine suspected area in BiH and the Support to the creation of the Information BHMAC Information System on the web platform, for which 1.1 million Euros have been allocated through the Instrument for Stability and Peace.

The project entitled “General Assessment of Mine Suspected Areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2018-2019”, will be conducted in the period 15. August 2018-31. December 31, 2019, will be jointly implemented by the Mine Action Center in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Armed Forces of BiH and the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA). It will be financed through emergency EC grants in the amount of EUR 900,000.

The aim of this project is to increase the effectiveness of mine action in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the implementation of an improved overall mine assessment, with the aim of setting a new foundation through the application of non-technical and technical survey. This will provide a new basis for realistic planning of mine action in order to develop a plan for the implementation of the Mine Action Strategy 2018-2025 and prepare a final request for fullfiling the obligations under Article 5 of the Ottawa Convention.

Contracts were signed by EU Delegation to BiH Khaldoun Sinno, BiH Minister of Civil Affairs Adil Osmanovic, BiH Defense Minister Marina Pendesh, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in BiH Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov and regional director of Norwegian People’s Aid for South East Europe Sven Jonas Zacrisson.

Since 1996, the European Union has provided more than 46 million euros for demining programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Minister of Civil Affairs Adil Osmanovic emphasized that the project will provide a general assessment of the suspected territories in BiH, certainly contributing to the speedy resolution of the removal of mine-explosive devices , while the establishment of a database is a completely different and better organized approach to solving these problems.

Saša Obradović, vd. director of the BiH Mine Action Center, reminded that in the last three years, the new demining method in BiH has been modernized and advanced and that the country, together with the Geneva Center and other organizations, has begun the process of new demining, targeted and systematic investigations, and that in 1996 there were 4,100 km2 of suspicious hazardous area, and today this figure is 1053 km2.

Inaccessible areas are still mine suspected, 64% are forests area. And that’s what this project will help us to get into these areas with the help of more advanced equipment and see if they are really under mines or not. Acting Director emphasized that BHMAC received minefield records from 1995 where the former confrontation lines can be seen, and the Ministry of Defense is now working on locating these maps to find the exact lines of confrontation and minefields.