AROUND TEWNTY CLUSTER BOMBS FOUND NEAR PRESEVO

25. May 2011.

Presevo – From April 29, 2011 until now, almost 20 remaining cluster bombs were found and destroyed near the village of Bustranje, which is situated in the municipality of Presevo, said, yesterday, Emil Jeremic, Director of the Norwegian People’s Aid Office in Serbia, which funds the removal of unexploded bombs.

“26 de-miners are currently working near the village of Bustranje, and this is the beginning of a three-year project of removing cluster bombs from the total of 4.5 km2 of problematic territory in South Serbia”, Mr. Jeremic said. „
According to him, the destroyed cluster bombs were found on farming soil, so that several farmers got injured when they came across the bombs leftover from the 1999 NATO bombing campaign.

“It is important to destroy the found cluster bombs as soon as possible. According to the standard procedure, that is done on the spot, without removing the bombs. More unexploded bombs are going to be destroyed on May 26, 2011. We expect that the cleaning of the territory near the village of Bustranja will be over during the summer, after which we shall move to another location,” Mr. Jeremic said.

The Norwegian government, through the Norwegian People’s Aid, provided 3.5 million euro for the removal of cluster bombs, which is carried out in cooperation with the Republican De-mining Center.

According to the data of the Norwegian People’s Aid, there are around 15 km2 with unexploded cluster bombs in Serbia.