<
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/croatia-declared-landmine-free-after-more-than-2-decades-of-demining-efforts/>
"In an incredible, bittersweet success story, Croatia has announced it has
freed itself from the scourge of landmines, 31 years after the country’s civil
war.
During the breakup of Yugoslavia, 1.5 million landmines were estimated to have
been used by all sides of the conflict, spread across an area of 453 square
miles, twice the size of Zion National Park in Utah.
Originally, some 5,000 square miles was believed to be contaminated by mines,
but for obvious safety reasons it was difficult to get more accurate estimates.
Now, with more than one billion euros spent, the country has eliminated all
known minefields using a combination of metal detectors, heavy machinery, and
detection dogs.
“Croatia is free of land mines. After nearly 30 years, we have completed
demining in accordance with the Ottawa Convention,” Interior Minister Davor
Božinović said during an event in Zagreb, referencing the UN convention on the
banning of anti-personnel mines, to which Croatia is a party to.
“Almost 107,000 mines and 407,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance have been
removed. This is not just a technical success—it is the fulfillment of a moral
obligation to the victims of mines and their families. A mine-free Croatia
means safer families, better development of rural areas, more farmland, and
stronger tourism.”
It’s difficult to ascertain an exact number, but likely tens of thousands of
square miles of ground worldwide still contain minefields or areas contaminated
by bombs and shells which failed to explode when they were first used."
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-fire-resistant-neighborhoods/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
