Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlgreece



Greece <![CDATA[Greece is affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). The mine contamination consists primarily of 57 minefields laid by Greece in 1974 along the Evros river on its heavily militarized northern border with Turkey, and maintained since then. The minefields contained antivehicle and antipersonnel mines; Greece has been removing the antipersonnel mines only, since becoming a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. The ERW contamination consists of explosive ordnance remaining from World War II and the 1946–1949 civil conflict in the Western Macedonia and Epirus regions in the north of the country, those that border Albania, Bulgaria, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Especially affected are the Grammos and Vitsi mountains, which saw fierce fighting in 1948–1949. In 2007, forest fires in the mountains resulted in explosions, which impeded fire-fighting efforts. There are also unknown numbers of mines in these areas, which have been the subject of a “huge mine clearance programme,” although Greece has previously declared that there are no properly defined minefields and no maps. The total size of contaminated areas in the north is not known although a Defense General Staff official estimated in 2007 that 0.31% of Greek territory—equivalent to more than 40,000km2—is contaminated by ERW, primarily unexploded ordnance (UXO). This appears to greatly exaggerate the extent of the problem. Within the Grammos and Vitsi mountains, said to be the most contaminated in Greece, suspected contamination was estimated in 2006 to cover more than 400km2 of land. A survey in 2007, however, found a total of 786 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs), including some mined areas, of which 13 SHAs covering 310,000m2 were subsequently cleared, leaving 773 areas to be demined.

In 2007, the ERW-affected areas were said by a defense general staff official to have “no socio-economic impact” on the local population. However, it has also been noted previously that areas cleared in the Grammos and Vitsi mountains are used for pasture and leisure.[ In June 2008, during a meeting with defense officials it was noted that the mountains were “very beautiful areas for recreation.

There were no reports of new mine/ERW casualties in Greece in 2007 or to July 2008. In 2006, at least nine mine casualties occurred in Greece (four people killed and five injured). All were non-Greek citizens attempting to cross the Evros minefields bordering Turkey. The last Greek deminer casualty was reported in 2005.

Between 1999 and the end of 2007, Landmine Monitor identified at least 105 casualties; 61 people were killed and 44 injured. In 2007, the head of the army demining unit was reported as stating that 104 illegal immigrants had been killed and another 187 severely injured in the border minefields since 1995. Greece reports there are no Greek [civilian] mine casualties. Reportedly at least 31 military deminers were killed in clearance operations between 1954 and 2007. An additional 17 military personnel were injured in clearance operations between 1954 and 2002.

In early 2008, there were five registered amputee mine survivors in Greece; all were foreign nationals. It is not known how many other mine survivors had left Greece voluntarily or how many were deported.

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