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Albania Now Mine-Free and Ready to Reconstruct Region
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Tirana, Albania, November 2009-After a decade of mine clearance work, Albania is now free of all known mined areas just ahead of a 2010 deadline. More than 15.3 million square meters of mines and unexploded ordinance in northeast Albania have been cleared since the late 1990s by several organizations, in a programme coordinated by the Albanian Mine Action Executive. With the removal of the mines and unexploded ordinance, the region—one of the poorest in Albania—can now be more fully developed and reconstructed. “More than 14 million square meters, now released as mine-free, are now in the process of being handed over to the population,” Petrit Karabina, Deputy Minister of Defense for Albania and Chairman of the Albanian Mine Action Committee, said. “The community in Albania can now make use of their land and feel safe.”
The mines and unexploded ordinance contamination resulted exclusively from mines laid by the military of the former Yugoslavia along the Kosovo border, and from cluster bombs dropped by NATO forces during that time. Since 1999, 34 people have been killed and 238 injured by the leftover explosives in northeast Albania. Thirty-nine villages and roughly 25,000 people were directly affected by living near the hazards. In the last decade, however, Albania and its partners have steadily worked to reduce mine risks and to clear the country of mines by the 2010 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention deadline. In the Kukes region, for instance, accidents involving mines and unexploded ordinance decreased from 154 in 1999 to zero by 2006.
Activities to help reduce such mine-incidents in Albania have included demining teams clearing fields, a coordinated information management system, mine-awareness programmes for the public, and support for those injured by mines. For survivors of mines and unexploded ordinance incidents, programmes have included help with medical care, rehabilitation including prostheses and access to social services. Survivors have also received help with finding new livelihoods, such as animal husbandry.
Albania was also the first country to receive help from a NATO Trust Fund dedicated to the destruction of all existing mine stockpiles, an obligation under Article 4 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.
“Clearance of the mine-contaminated areas demonstrates Albania’s will to promote peace in the region [South East Europe],” Mr. Karabina said. He made his remarks at a regional meeting to discuss a mine-free South Eastern Europe. Mines and unexploded ordinance are an ongoing hazard in the region following several wars in the Balkans in the 1990s. UNDP also has a similar initiative in Azerbaijan. [To read more about de-mining in Azerbaijan and watch a related video vist here.]
In addition to the United Nations Development Programme, mine-clearance partners in Albania, besides the national and regional government authorities include the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance in Slovenia,DanChurchAid, the Swiss Foundation for Demining, RONCO, HELP, UNMAS and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining.
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