MINES AT TWO LOCATIONS NEAR BUJANOVAC REMOVED

18. November 2019.

Bujanovac – The demining of two locations near Bujanovac was completed – the zone near the villages of Koncul and Turija, a total area of which is 600,000 square meters, the Government's Mine Action Center said.

Deminers also found and together with the Emergency Situations Office destroyed 20 anti-personnel mines and 15 pieces of various ordnance.

They found mines beside forest roads, grouped.

Demining is based on the work of deminers, as they are the most important persons, since this job could not be done without them, while there are other methods of demining.

"We were able to use specially trained dogs to detect explosives, because the vegetation and the configuration of the terrain made it possible," said Radosav Zivkovic from “Stop Mines”.

“Those mines were not classically arranged in line, but were grouped from four to five mines in certain spots, mostly those on the roads,” said Neda Gvozdenovic, a contractor at “In Demining”.

Momcilo Marinkovic, the deminer, says that they have successfully completed the task and, most importantly, no one was injured.

In the area of Bujanovac, several sites were cleared over the past seven years.

Recent fires pointed to new suspected terrains, with explosions heard from multiple locations.

“An anti-personnel mine was located in the ground, and if God forbid, someone had come upon it, it would have been be activated, so we can say that we have also saved human and animal lives by clearing the ground, "said Bojan Glamoclija, Director of the Demining Center.

The cleanup is funded by the Serbian government with the assistance of the United States of America, the Republic of Korea and Japan and the International Foundation for the Advancement of Human Security.

"Over fifteen years, around 24 million dollars were collected and spent on cluster munition clearance and clearing projects in Serbia, starting from Sid, through Bujanovac and all over Serbia," said Gregor Sancanin from the International Foundation for the Advancement of Human Security.

There are still cluster munitions and airplane bombs left in Serbia and projects for cleaning cluster munitions in Nis, Sjenica and on Mt.Kopaonik are being prepared.

Source: Radio and Television of Serbia, Vranje News and Coordination Body