Balkan Floods Raise Fresh Landmine Fears in Bosnia
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - In the wake of the worst floods to hit the Balkans in more than a century, officials fear that the heavy rainfall may also have exposed and dislodged thousands of landmines left in Bosnia after the 1992-1995 war.
Mine removal experts estimate that more than 120,000 landmines waiting to be detonated remain planted across Bosnia, the legacy of a war that killed 100,000 people and displaced more than a million.
Bosnia’s Mine Action Center (MAC) has appealed for international help in getting more equipment and satellite screening to track the movement of mines after the heaviest rainfall in the Balkans since records began 120 years ago, AFP reported.
“There have been a number of reports that mines resurfaced after the flood and that landslides have moved whole minefields and markings,” MAC head Sasa Obradovic said.
“We are struggling to pinpoint all these areas and warn people in time.”
MAC says that more than 600 people have been killed and over 1,700 more have been wounded in landmine accidents since the war ended in 1995. This year alone, Obradovic said four people had been killed and 12 had been wounded.
He put the cost of ridding the country completely of landmines at 300 million euros by 2019. The country’s reliance on agriculture and logging means few can afford not to take the risk.
“Bearing in mind that the impoverished population in rural areas relies on logging as the only source of income, there’s a big risk of new incidents after such rainfall,” Obradovic said.
The floods began last week and have devastated homes, roads and churches in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia, leading to the evacuation of more than 60,000 people in the central European region.
On Monday, the death toll reached 47 after two new victims were found overnight in a village near the western Serbian town of Sabac.