Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlchech



Czech Republic <![CDATA[The Czech Republic’s previous estimate that clearance of the former Soviet military zone at Ralsko would be completed in 2001 had to be revised, due to the discovery of additional contaminated areas of some 3,500 hectares. The government decided to extend the clearance operations until 31 December 2003. One press account said some areas in Ralsko were so contaminated that it may take ten to 20 years before they can be returned to civilian use. However, the April 2002 Article 7 Report notes a greatly decreased level of contamination (15 items per hectare) compared with previous Article 7 Reports (500-1,000 items per hectare). The former military area is now under local authority control; clearance is carried out jointly by military explosive ordnance disposal teams and the police pyrotechnical sanitation team. By the end of 2001, a total of 52,573 items of UXO, excluding infantry ammunition, had been found and destroyed.

The Ralsko former military area (some 250 square kilometers) is sparsely populated and mostly forested. The municipality of Ralsko has about 6,000 inhabitants. There have been no serious accidents from mines and UXO in the area. The high risk areas are marked and fenced off. People living in the area are well aware of its history as a military training ground, and have been told to report any UXO found to the local police. Following government regulations for municipalities in former military areas, information posters on the risk of UXO are posted on the municipality’s information board and website. Information is also given on the regional TV news.

In other parts of the Czech Republic, there are also occasional cases of discovery of UXO left over from the Second World War. Most items of UXO are found near urban areas during construction. Clearance in these emergency cases is the responsibility of the police and the Ministry of Interior, which estimates that during 2001 some 12,000 items of UXO, excluding infantry ammunition, were found in different locations. But due to the lack of centralized statistics, this may include some of the UXO cleared by the police pyrotechnical sanitation unit at Ralsko. Since January 2002, all regional police headquarters are supposed to report all UXO findings and incidents to the Pyrotechnical Department of the Ministry of Interior.

Czech units in SFOR (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and KFOR (Kosovo) have participated in demining in their areas of responsibility where clearance has been needed for the fulfillment of their duties.

In 2001, the Czech Republic again provided US$50,000 to the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance, based in Slovenia.

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