Minefields in Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

can still be found along the former front lines of the Croatian War of Independence

Croatian War of Independence

The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...

. During the 1991-1995 war, up to two million land mine

Land mine

A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....

s were laid by both sides in the conflict. This has given Croatia one of the worst mine problems in Europe; several hundred people have been killed by them and it is estimated that the country will not be free of mines until at least 2019.

Mines in military strategy

Land mines were extensively used throughout the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. In Croatia, they were a particularly important component of the military strategy of the Yugoslav People's Army

Yugoslav People's Army

The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...

 (JNA) and, later, the Military of Serbian Krajina

Military of Serbian Krajina

* Armored Vehicles** T-34/85** T-55** T-72 ** M-84 ** PT-76** OT M-60** BVP M-80** BOV ** BRDM-2** M36 Jackson** M18 Hellcat* Artillery** M-63 Plamen** M-77 Oganj * Anti-aircraft ** ZSU-57-2** M53/59 Praga...

 (VSK). The Serb-held areas of Croatia had a lengthy front line but little strategic depth - in some places the rebel Republic of Serbian Krajina

Republic of Serbian Krajina

The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb entity within Croatia. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. It formally existed from 1991 to 1995, having been initiated a year earlier via smaller separatist regions. The name Krajina means "frontier"...

 was only 50 kilometers wide - and the VSK had a severe shortage of soldiers to defend the lines. The VSK was reliant on its superior artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 to repel attacks and buy time for reinforcements to be brought into play. Consequently it used extensive belts of mines, backed by trenches and bunkers, to deter and slow down infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 assaults so that artillery could be brought to bear on the attackers. A similar strategy was used by the Bosnian Serb Army for very similar reasons.

The Croatian Army also used mines, particularly at the start of the war in 1991 when it sought to slow the Serbian/Yugoslav advance in the east of the country. However, it seems to have had far fewer mines in its arsenal than the Yugoslav and Serbian forces. Croatia retained no indigenous mine-production capabilities after the breakup of Yugoslavia and was largely reliant on stockpiles captured from JNA barracks in government-held areas of the country.

Croatia ratified the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction

Ottawa Treaty

The Ottawa Treaty or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines around the world. , there were 158...

 in 1998, and hosted the 6th annual meeting of party states in 2005.

Locations of minefields

Mines were laid along almost the full length of the front lines, most notably in eastern Slavonia

Slavonia

Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...

 (especially around Vukovar

Vukovar

Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...

 and Osijek

Osijek

Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...

), western Slavonia and along the confrontation line in the Croatian Krajina

Croatian Krajina

The Croatian Military Frontier was a territory in the Habsburg Monarchy, including the Austrian Empire and Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.-History:...

 region and parts of northern Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

. Mines were also laid around the international border between the Serb-held Croatian Krajina and the Bosnian Army-held Bihać

Bihac

Bihać is a city and municipality on the river Una in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosanska Krajina region. Bihać is located in the Una-Sana Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-History:...

 region of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

. Some smaller minefields were laid in southern Dalmatia around Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...

 and in the Konavle

Konavle

Konavle is a small region and municipality located southeast of Dubrovnik, Croatia.It is administratively part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and forms a municipality with its center at Gruda with a total population of 8,250 people split in 32 villages, in which 96.5% are Croats...

 region, which was occupied by the JNA during late 1991 - early 1992.


In all, it was estimated that almost 8 percent of Croatian territory was affected by mines and between 1.5 million - 2 million mines were believed to have been laid during the course of the war.

Casualties

Between 1991 and April 2006, 430 people were killed by mines in Croatia and another 1,349 were wounded. The casualty rate has fallen in recent years as minefields have been mapped and put out of bounds. In 2005, four people were killed and nine wounded, but there had been no new casualties by the start of April 2006.

A significant number of the victims have been children living near the mined areas. In response, the Croatian government has undertaken a major campaign of mine education and plans have been outlined to build playgrounds near mined areas, to encourage children to play there rather than on dangerous ground.

Demining operations

The Croatian government has dedicated itself to eradicating landmines (demining

Demining

Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing either land mines, or naval mines, from an area, while minesweeping describes the act of detecting of mines. There are two distinct types of mine detection and removal: military and humanitarian.Minesweepers use many tools in order to accomplish...

) as well as allowing and assisting a network of international mine clearance programs. It has spent substantial amounts of money on demining work, $24.9 million in 1999 alone.

These efforts have resulted in significant areas being cleared of mines. In 2001, 42.3 million square meters of land were returned to productive use. By early 2004, the government declared its first mine-impacted county "mine-safe". The Croatian government plans to add two or three more counties to the mine-safe list by the end of 2006.

However, the government does not expect to be able to declare the country 'mine-safe' until at least 2009. In April 2006, the Croatian Mine Action Centre announced that 1,147 square kilometers are still categorized as being suspected of containing landmines, comprising twelve (of 21) counties; 30 percent of that area is known for a fact to be mined. One fourth of the entire population lives in these areas. A significant complicating factor is the relatively undisciplined way in which mines were often laid, as well as the terrain in some areas. In the marshy ground of Eastern Slavonia, for instance, mines have been displaced or washed away by floods. , 48 deminers have been killed in mine clearance tasks since the end of the war.

Clearance of landmines is carried out by several different organizations and commercial companies who compete through a competitive bidding process for the job. Adopt-A-Minefield (AAM) has supported mine clearance in Croatia since 1999 (working through the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance). All Adopt-A-Minefield donations earmarked for Croatia are matched dollar for dollar by the ITF.

The Croatian government has also been a strong supporter of the Ottawa Treaty

Ottawa Treaty

The Ottawa Treaty or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines around the world. , there were 158...

 banning landmines, which it signed in 1997 and ratified in 1998. It has, however, been criticised for slowness in destroying its own stockpiles of mines and for retaining an unusually high number of mines for "training purposes".

Mines and Tourism

The minefields issue has posed a serious image problem for the tourism industry in Croatia, even though no foreign tourists have fallen victims to mines in the country. In 2003 however, a Dutch tourist lost a leg as he stepped on a mine in an area close to a former army base on the island Vis. Even though this area has been cleaned (again) since, it is still considered a risk area for mines. Most tourist guidebooks to Croatia include warnings of the danger of mines and cite areas of particular concern, such as in eastern Slavonia. The presence of mines in high-profile tourist areas such as the Plitvice Lakes municipality caused significant damage to local tourism and such areas have been made a high priority for demining operations. In the case of the Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lakes National Park is the oldest national park in Southeast Europe and the largest national park in Croatia. The national park was founded in 1949 and is situated in the mountainous karst area of central Croatia, at the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina...

 national park, for instance, the area was certified mine-free as early as 1998, enabling UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 to remove the park from its endangered list.

The problem of dealing with landmines has led to some tension between the tourism industry and the deminers. Zdenko Mičić, Croatia's minister of tourism, has vowed to remove mine warning billboards currently placed even on places (like ports) where there are no mines before the 2006 summer tourist season. Such billboards are often displayed far from actual minefields as a means of raising public awareness of the problem. However, Mičić said that despite humanitarian nature of the campaign it is counterproductive for the tourist industry and that billboards should be removed.

Mine-cleared areas

Select dates of mine-cleared municipalities are as follows:

• Ston - 2010
• Župa dubrovačka - 2010