Minesweeping in B&H

Bosnian Fields of Death

"Seesaw", "Chocolate", "paste", are all likeable names for murderous devices the Bosnian ground has been stuffed with. Nobody is capable of determining their exact number, not even two years after the official end of the war, nor who is supposed to remove them. During all that time, only in the vicinity of the capital, several ten people are killed or injured every month as victims of activated mines

AIM Sarajevo, 2 December, 1997

According to the data of the Red Cross, in the beginning of the nineties, about eight thousand people in the world were killed every month by land mines, or more than one man every hour, and about 450 people were injured. The latest estimates are even more drastic, they warn that mines kill about 500 persons in an hour, and injure about 26 thousand persons a month. These figures show that the number of victims has increased by 500 times. At this rate, in a couple of years, estimates of experts show, between 36 and 39 thousand people would be killed in this way.

At the moment Bosnia & Herzegovina is the fourth country in the world according to the number of mines, and it ranks first according to their distribution per square kilometre. Two years after the war, the total number of mines has not been exactly determined, but it is estimated that there are between three and six million of them, which means four mines per every three citizens of this country, or more than a mine per capita. Experts claim that the active life of a mine is about 50 years. Despite these figures there is still no central organization in B&H which is responsible for sweeping mine fields. Nobody can say exactly who is exactly engaged in the job and for how much money. According to unofficial data, there are about 40 privately owned agencies for removing landmines which mostly engage former soldiers who are paid 100 German marks for every day spent in a minefield. Persons engaged in mine sweeping by foreign agencies have life insurance by Lloyd, while domestic agencies are paying just pension and health insurance, which is not bad in the current situation.

On the territory of Republica Srpska, there is a smaller number of agencies so that mine sweepers often come from the Federation. "We have no problems when we go there, although most of us have been in the Army. There are few of those who wish to enter a minefield, so if there is somebody who is crazy enough to do it, nobody prevents him", says Dzevad who has been working in minefields ever since the war.

Mines, pieces of armament forbidden by all conventions, in textbooks for the subject called "Defence and Protection" taught in elementary and secondary schools in former Yugoslavia, were defined as a "strategic weapons". The general definition of mines is that they are "stationary murderous devices intended for destroying and putting man-power out of action, and destroying and damaging technical devices and facilities... One of the fundamental specific characteristics of mines is that, contrary to other weapons, they are activated by the victims themselves."

Nineteen per cent of B&H victims, according to the available data, are children below the age of 17. Consequences of mine injuries are classified among the most serious ones. This is due to unclean wounds liable to infections and psychic disorders which the victims suffer from. Since the victims after injuries most frequently undergo amputations, most of them lose their jobs. For medical treatment, without taking psychological trauma into consideration, according to calculations done in the USA, about 3,600 dollars a year are needed for each individual.

Out of the eight thousand minefields registered in B&H, 70 per cent are on the territory of the Federation. Most of them are in the region of central Bosnia in which towns of Gornji Vakuf and Vares are the most threatened ones. Sweeping of a single square metre costs 8 German marks. The equipment of a single man engaged in minesweeping costs about 30 thousand German marks. Bosnians engaged in minesweeping have little confidence in foreigners who are doing this job. "The foreigners do not have the same interest as we do. They are working just for the money. Of course, we too are doing it for the money, but this is our country and there is also a different interest. I am myself a victim of a mine and I do not wish anybody else to be hurt", says Adnan Kaljanac from M97 agency.

Last year there was an agency for mine sweeping and removal of unexploded devices formed by the government of B&H Federation headed by Hasan Cengic. However, after the elections and at the initiative of the World Bank, this agency ceased to exist, and Cengic was appointed Bosniac representative in a three-member commission for mine sweeping by the council of ministers. Private agencies which remove mines complain that, while the agency existed, equipment arrived from abroad which was supposed to be distributed to all the registered firms. To this day nobody got anything. They also complain about distribution of work which was also the responsibility of the agency. At the time, the state agency charged three B&H firms with nine locations. They were SI Company, Oktol and Amphibia, and the were owned partly by some high state officials such as Hasan Muratovic. In five out of these nine locations, not a single mine was found. Some say that they were in fact sweeping the already swept minefields. One of the locations was the neighbourhood of the World Museum downtown Sarajevo. Mines were not found, but the money was nevertheless aid to the firms which had been engaged for the job.

Out of the three agencies there is only Amphibia now, the workers of which have swept the river bed of Miljacka for the third time, near Vrbanja bridge where units of the Army of B&H were located during the war. At the same time, like so many times before, Grbavica and the lawns along which inhabitants of this part of the city peacefully walked until recently were swept again. How justified that was is best illustrated by the following data: after a mine sweeping team finishes with a region, they are obliged to issue a certificate which warrants that 98.6 per cent of that land was swept. The firm which had done the sweeping is responsible for the truthfulness of the issued certificate which is checked by UN sweeping centres.

This means that while some parts of the country are swept for who knows how many times, in immediate vicinity of Sarajevo there are minefields into which nobody has even entered although there are vacant houses in them. This is the case with Zlatiste, for example, a part of the city which is about 800 metres away from the centre of the city.

Asija Kamber was injured in front of her house in Zlatiste, and she is considered to be the greatest victim of mines in B&H because she had four amputations. Such severe injuries are caused by the so-called two or three-storey mines. These devices consist of an anti-tank mine which is at the bottom and which has six kilograms of trotyl. On top of it is a grenade, and on top of that is an anti-infantry mine which is activated by only three kilograms of weight. The anti-tank mine alone can destroy a tank weighing 30 tons and kill the entire crew. Until now, nobody has been known to survive an explosion of such a mine. Asija Kamber has survived thanks to the vicinity of the place where she was injured to the hospital. The second case is an eleven year old boy. Apart from these two, there are no data about survivors after activation of anti-tank mines.

"We would sweep that too, but nobody has offered to pay for it, and expenses are too high for us to cover them on our own", people from the M97 agency say.

"We have encountered more serious injuries in the post-Dayton period than during the war", says Dr Faris Gavrankapetanovic who is along with Dr Ismet Gavrankapetanovic and Dr Abdulah Fazlic, creator of a new method by application of which he succeeds to save limbs of the victims of mines, instead of having to amputate them which was the usual method until now. The method consists of re-implantation of bones, skin and muscles from other parts of the body to the place where amputation is needed.

There are no collective data about the number of victims with amputations in B&H due to mines. Although money for artificial limbs for war victims, and even victims of mines, arrives in donations, they are still forced to pay for them, and the price of a high-quality artificial lower leg is about 10 thousand German marks. Asija Kamber does not have a single artificial limb, she does not even have a wheelchair, and as compensation receives 47 German marks a month, as the only victim with four amputations in the country. The concern of the state is also illustrated by the fact that one of the victims who was visited by Lady D, carved an artificial limb of wood for himself because he had no money to buy a real one. Ken Rutherford, founder of Landmine Survivor Network for the assistance to victims of landmines, a victim himself, accompanied the Princess. He was shocked with the situation victims of mines in B&H are in.

"The government of Bosnia & Herzegovina has received an enormous amount of money to buy artificial limbs for the disabled persons. The amount concerned is eight million dollars of aid donated through the World Bank and it is intended solely for purchasing artificial limbs", says Rutherford and adds that for artificial limbs for both legs which he himself wears it is necessary to pay 16 thousand dollars. "Almost every disabled person in B&H could have them if only the money intended for them would reach them".

Mine sweeping is a job which can be done only in summer, late spring and early autumn months. In this part of the world, this means about six months of a year. Until the beginning of the new season of mine sweeping, the government of B&H has plenty of time to get organized and to begin directing the money allocated for this purpose where it belongs. Children from Nedzarici, suburb of the capital of this state and according to the assessment of many, the cultural capital of Europe, are forced to continue to go to school by a narrow path cut through a minefield, because not even two years after the official end of the war, has anybody remembered to minesweep the area of the war separation line.

Nidzara AHMETASEVIC

(AIM, Sarajevo)