Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlmacedonia



Macedonia <![CDATA[In September 2006, FYR Macedonia reported fulfilling its Article 5 obligations, having cleared the only known landmine threat on its northwestern border with Kosovo and Albania. However, FYR Macedonia is still plagued by explosive remnants of war (ERW), both unexploded ordnance (UXO) and abandoned explosive ordnance, most of it dating back to World Wars I and II.

The precise extent of ERW contamination, however, remains to be quantified. FYR Macedonia’s Protection and Rescue Directorate, responsible for mine action in the country, reports that ERW may be found anywhere in the territory but identifies dangerous areas totaling some 8.5km2; of this area, it is said that the overwhelming majority—8.2km2—is located in the district of Bitola. On the southern border with Greece, a further 280,000m2 of land between Dojran and Gevgelija was found by a 2005 general survey to be “severely contaminated” with UXO. However, no technical survey has been undertaken in this region, which is extremely mountainous, rocky and inaccessible.

The authorities have also estimated that hills around Ohrid have 25,000m2 of contaminated land and that there is further UXO left from World Wars I and II in Ohrid lake in the vicinity of Pestani, Gradiste, Kalista, and Radozda. Finally, the northwestern border regions around Kumanovo, Skopje, and Tetovo are contaminated, mainly with unexploded air-dropped bombs, from World Wars I and II. ERW from the conflict in 2001 between government forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents is said to have been cleared. The Protection and Rescue Directorate has stated that the remaining ERW contamination in the country does not pose a threat to the population as it is mostly located on high mountainous and forested areas that are not used by the public.

Landmine Monitor did not identify new mine/ERW casualties in FYR Macedonia in 2007 and to June 2008. In July 2008, the Association of War Invalids of Macedonia (AWIM) reported that it had not received information of mine/ERW incidents in recent years.

Prior to its closure in 2003, the UN Mine Action Office used the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) to record mine incidents and casualties. Sources have indicated that at least 24 people were killed and 44 injured between 1999 and 2005 in mined areas in the northwest, and that a further 14 people were killed and 142 injured in the south of the country between 1965 and 2002. The Protection and Rescue Directorate reported that 40 people were killed and 1,043 injured by mines/ERW in the period 1945–2003. ]]> <![CDATA[]]>