Visit of Japan’s Ambassador to the location of the demining project "Turijska Brda" in Bujanovac
On June 14, 2019, Japan’s Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia, H.E. Mr. Junichi Maruyama, with his associates, as well as the representative of ITF Enhancing Human Security, Mr. Gregor Sančanin, visited the location of the demining project "Turijska Brda" in the Municipality of Bujanovac.
The visit was organized by the Mine Action Center of the Republic of Serbia in order to present a comprehensive mine situation in the Republic of Serbia, with a special focus on the work of deminers and demining methods on this project.
On this occasion, the material was presented aimed at pointing out the complexity and severity of the removal of mines contaminating this location, but also to point out that the realization of this project will eliminate the danger for people and the environment, that is, enable safe exploitation of forests, cattle farming, collection of mushrooms, which is all for the population of this underdeveloped part of the Republic of Serbia of an invaluable importance.
The project totalling 389.200 sqm was developed by the Mine Action Center, which governs the implementation and performs quality control over the works, while the non-governmental organization N.G.O. "IN Demining", Pale, Republic of Srpska, with the representative office in Belgrade, is implementing this project in the field.
The implementation of this project is enabled by the funds provided by the Government of Japan, through the ITF, with the support of the US Government.
This is the first time that Japan has been providing support to our country also in the field of humanitarian demining.
The company "Trotil" d.o.o., Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been engaged by ITF and donors as a monitoring organization for this project.
As a reminder, in the Municipality of Bujanovac, so far, area of 2,153,807 sqm has been cleared of mines, with 50 pieces of mines and 1,349 pieces of unexploded ordnance found and safely destroyed.
The remaining mine contaminated area in the Municipality of Bujanovac totals around 1,800,000 sqm.
