Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlcroatia



Croatia <![CDATA[Landmine/ERW Problem

Croatia is affected by landmines and, to a much lesser extent, explosive remnants of war (ERW)—a legacy of four years of armed conflict associated with the breakup of the former Yugoslavia during the early 1990s. Mines were laid mainly to protect defensive positions on the lines of confrontation, which changed frequently, but also in areas of strategic importance such as railway lines, power stations, and pipelines.

Demining activities and a general survey that started in 2006 reduced the total suspected area of contamination to 997km2 by February 2008, a figure still significantly larger than the estimate for Afghanistan, which has suffered three decades of armed conflict. Mined areas are still present in 12 counties, including the agriculturally fertile region of Slavonia, which also has oil and natural gas reserves. They affect the population of 112 cities and municipalities with 834,000 inhabitants (representing 39% of the population of affected counties, and 18% of the total population).

Of the total suspected hazardous area, forest accounts for 566km2 (57%), arable land for 140.7km2 (14%), meadows and pastures 108.2km2 (11%), and underbrush and karst (limestone areas characteristic of a certain region of the former Yugoslavia) 108.7km2 (11%). Croatia estimates the annual loss to agriculture due to contamination at €44 million (US$70 million) and the cost to forest industries at €178 million ($283.3 million). Mined areas are also said to impede the return of many of the remaining 22,000 internally displaced persons and affect 100km2 of national parks and wildlife reserves, hurting tourism.

Croatia’s Article 7 report submitted in April 2007 stated that five military facilities are contaminated with a further 65,526 antipersonnel mines and 1,707 antivehicle mines. According to the Law on Humanitarian Demining, the Croatian army is responsible for clearance of all military areas. There is also a problem with ERW: items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) can be found around military storage facilities and the public still occasionally reports items of abandoned explosive ordnance.

Landmine/ERW Casualties

In 2007, CROMAC recorded eight casualties in four incidents and three clearance accidents (three people killed and five injured). All were men, including three deminers (one killed and two injured) and an Italian tourist killed while hunting. PROM-1 bounding fragmentation mines caused five of the casualties. All casualties were reportedly aware of the danger of mined areas that they entered. The civilian casualties were involved in livelihood or recreational activities.[70]

Livestock casualties were also reported in 2007; in one incident some 60 sheep were reported killed and 20 injured by bounding fragmentation mines in a pasture previously cleared of mines. CROMAC only collects data on casualties occurring within suspected mined areas, thus ERW casualties, often children, are likely to go unreported.

The 2007 casualty rate is a decrease compared to at least 13 mine/ERW casualties in eight incidents in 2006, including one (cluster) submunition casualty not reported to Landmine Monitor previously. No tourist casualties were reported for 2006. In 2005, a Dutch tourist was injured by a mine outside of CROMAC monitoring areas.

Casualties continued to be reported in 2008, with at least six casualties reported by 22 July one of whom was a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina. CROMAC recorded one man killed and three injured, including one deminer. Two of the civilian casualties were caused by a PROM-1 mine while hunting. A worker was injured by a mine fuze removed from an antivehicle mine which lay in a field that had reportedly been demined and verified twice. Landmine Monitor identified two additional casualties (one killed and one injured), both men. The casualties were caused by antipersonnel mines while the men were grazing their animals. One of the incidents happened when sheep detonated a bounding fragmentation mine in a marked minefield. ]]> <![CDATA[]]>