Cluster Bombs, Mines Haunt Serbia
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
7 November 2007

 Bujanovac, Belgrade _ Cluster bombs and mines left behind from the 1999 Kosovo war and an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2000-01 continue to pose a threat in Serbia's south, officials warned Wednesday.

 "Cluster sub-munitions are most threatening as they are sometimes only a few metres away from residential areas," said Alija Aslani, the head of the Civil Defense department in the southern town of Bujanovac.

Aslani's remarks on Wednesday came after the United Nations Children's Fund urged governments on Monday to create a legally binding international pact to ban various deadly weapons, inlcuding cluster munitions and land mines which are a particular threat to civilians, especially children.

Cluster munitions or cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched ordnance that eject a number of smaller sub-munitions or bomblets over wide areas.

The most common types are anti-personnel or anti-armour. Although most detonate on impact, a percentage remains unexploded and armed.

During NATO's 78-day air war launched to end Serbia's crackdown against rebellious Kosovo Albanians, the Alliance's aircraft dropped 1,080 cluster bombs on what was then Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, killing and maiming dozens.

In September NATO finally released its target data including 218 sets of coordinates so groups like the Serbian Centre for Demining can get down to clearing all the minefields.

The Serbian government says some 350,000 sub-munitions were used, and about 23 square kilometres of land had not been cleared of them.

Landmines also remain a key threat for civilian population in the Balkans.

During the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia of six republics, millions of landmines were planted by all warring parties, often without plans.

Demining in Bosnia and Kosovo remains a key problem for local authorities and international peacekeepers.

Following the end of conflict in June 1999, thousands of unexploded cluster bomblets and land mines remained in the three southern Serbian municipalities, Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, that also saw an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2000-01.

"(Ethnic) Albanian guerrillas and Serb troops were planting mines all over the place and no one knows where these minefields are," Aslani said.

 Their exact number is unknown and "although sappers uncovered and destroyed some 7,000 pieces of various ordnance so far," cluster bomblets and landmines have killed five people and injured 14, Aslani said.

He also warned that most of the unexploded cluster sub-munitions are scattered in hills overlooking Bujanovac.

"Little more than a dozen are marked, but people are informing us on new findings on a daily basis."

Serbian military and police have employed considerable effort to clean up areas affected by unexploded ordnance, but the effort was brought to a halt in 2003 due to lack of funds.

Recently Serbia received $20 million (€13.6) in aid for the clean-up operation, but work will not get under way until next year.