Mine warfare

Yugoslav-era mines lie scattered across the ground in an area marked off with sticks. In the middle of the area, the remains of a dead animal can be seen.

To the left, another zone is marked as 'contaminated' with unexploded ordnance, although no mines are visible to the eye. Instead they are covered by vegetation, even deadlier than if they were in plain sight.

When two deminers were killed on August 25  nearby the town of Livno in south-west Bosnia while they were on duty in one of the minefields that still blight the country, it again highlighted the dangers faced by those who are working to clear the remaining unexploded ordnance left over from the 1992-95 war.

The Hellenic Army's Land Mine Clearance Squad (TENX) recovered a total of 106 missiles, 42 hand grenades and 13 land mines dating to various conflicts from different parts of the country as part of a clearance operation last month, defense officials said on Wednesday.

The munitions were all destroyed in controlled procedures by TENX experts.

Efforts to clear mines have been launched on Mount Ararat in the eastern province of Iğdır as part of a project financed by the European Union and Turkey in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 

Gordana Medunjanin is a no-nonsense woman with military discipline that she passes on to her top recruits - the specially-trained dogs who detect mines and bombs all over the world.

State-run Anadolu Agency has visited Medunjanin's training center on the outskirts of the Serbian capital, Sarajevo, where the sound of dogs barking and yelping filled the country's frosty air. 

A new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project to clear Turkey's eastern borders of land mines was launched on April 4, International Land Mine Awareness Day, at a hotel in Ankara with the participation of Defense Minister ?smet Y?ld?z.

Clearing Bosnia of wartime mines is proceeding slower than expected due to lack of funds, and the authorities are planning to revise the existing strategy, which was planned for completion by 2019, an expert from the Bosnian Mine Action Center, BHMAC, told BIRN.

Croatia on Wednesday deployed demining teams to the border area near Serbia as refugees started entering that country on foot, avoiding border crossings.

"Police have contacted us and we sent a team to the border area in eastern Croatia," an official at the Croatian Demining Center told Reuters, "asking not to be named," the agency said.

Police divers and de-miners have found more than 600 unexploded anti-ship mines, bombs and other explosive devices in Montenegrin waters this year.

The underwater mines, left over from World War I and II, were located and neutralized off shore in the bay near the resort towns of Kotor and Tivat.

PARACIN - The Russian ministry of emergency situations decided to give medals to six members of the humanitarian demining squad for their outstanding service in the territory of Serbia.

Members of the demining squad received scrolls of honor for the service in line with the highest professional standards from the Serbian-Russian humanitarian center based in Nis, southern Serbia.