Saturday, April 04, 2020

April 4th. the International Mine Awareness Day.

I have been learning a lot during the last year, collaborating with the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) on land mine clearing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the nearby region, has brought an important perspective to why this is such incredibly important work. There are still mines and other explosives littering the landscape. Many live in a situation where their lives are affected by this unseen threat. And, many people gets injured and even die every year. All this happens, more the 20 years after the wars in this region ended.

April 4th. marks the International Mine Awareness Day. A common goal is to be free land mines by 2025- if this is to happen, it will be absolutely vital for all parties to collaborate, work together in a focused way. More than that, it is important for the men and women who works in this business to get back to work as soon as possible.


A team from the NPA office in Sarajevo, BiH has been clearing the site of cluster munitions and is nearly finished in Montenegro.

The area is contaminated is right along the airport and some parts that has been cleared is inside the airport area.
  
Branco lives on his small farm right next to the airport. Large parts of his filed is contaminated.

Despite contamination, the area  has been used for agriculture since the war in the region ended more than 20 years ago. 
On our vist 2 weeks ago, 3 explosives were found in 2 days. 
A break and a brief before the afternoon activities start.

The site cleared is in and around the airport in Podgorica.