DEMINING OF SOUTH SERBIA

30. April 2011.

Pursuant to the bilateral cooperation between Norway and Serbia, the demining of 4.3 km2 of the land in South Serbia began yesterday in the village of Bustranja, which is situated in the municipality of Presevo.

Emil Jeremic, Director of the Norwegian People’s Aid in Serbia, says that there are around 16 km2 of land in Serbia with unexploded cluster bombs leftover from the period of NATO bombing activity.
The demining activity, which began yesterday morning, marks the beginning of a three-year project.

„It was planned to remove cluster bombs from the territory of the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Kursumlija over the next three years, while the Norwegian government had provided the amount of 3.5 million EUR for it. 35 persons take part in the demining activity, while most of deminers are from Bosnia. They were engaged by the Norwegian’s People’s Aid and by the Republican Demining Center, with witch a Memorandum of Understanding was previously signed,” Mr. Jeremic said

In the village of Bustranja, where the demining activity began, a boy got killed and three boys got wounded in July 1999. Mr. Jeremic also said that the Norwegian People’s Aid had worked on removing mines from a field near Sid, which was 1 km2 large. The said demining activity lasted from June 2006 until October 2008.

The Norwegian’s People’s Aid is a humanitarian organization of the Norwegian Trade Union Movement, which was founded in 1939.