SARAJEVO, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) will contribute an additional 1.1 million euros (1.29 million U.S. dollars) to the de-mining projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), an agreement signed here on Monday shows.
The money will be divided in two projects that will have the end goal of clearance of mines. The first project relates to reconnaissance of the suspected areas and the second one relates to the establishment of the new database on areas covered by mines and establishment of the web application.
At the press conference held in the capital Sarajevo on Monday, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the EU to BiH Khaldoun Sinno signed the agreement titled "General Assessment of Suspected Areas in BiH 2018 - 2019" with BiH Minister of Defense Marina Pendes.
Sinno pointed out that the EU, apart from demining projects, provides support to the victims of mines, to returnees. He expressed hope that by the year 2025, BiH will be completely cleaned of mines.
The realization of the first project is planned to be finished by December 2019 and will be executed with help of 14 non-technical research teams from BiH Armed Forces, BiH Mine Action Centre and Norwegian National Aid, according to a BiH Armed Forces statement.
"I am assured that, with the new methodology, it will be much easier to attain the goal of 2025 as the year when BiH will be truly cleared of mines," Pendes said.
After the war that took place here from 1992-1995, 1,756 people were injured by mines or unexploded ordnance, of which 613 were killed. During the de-mining operations in BiH, 51 deminers were killed.
More than 20 years after the war ended in BiH, there are still reports on casualties from unexploded ordnance, and according to estimations done by BiH Mine Action Centre, 2.2 percent of BiH territory are still covered by mines, out of which, 60 percent is located in the woods.
According to the latest data, there are 1,398 vulnerable sites containing mines in 129 municipalities in BiH. Possible contamination with mines directly affects the safety of about 545,603 inhabitants, or 15 per cent of the total population.
Since 1996, the year marking the end of the war in BiH, the EU has invested 46 million euros (54.2 million U.S. dollars) for demining programs in BiH.
