Plestina was taking part in a workshop held under NATO's sponsorship and organised by the Atlantic Council of Serbia and Montenegro and the organisation Fund for Peace to promote and coordinate activities to fight terrorism and prevent wars and alleviate their consequences.
The Zagreb conference, to be held from November 28 to December 2, will be the sixth meeting of countries that signed the Mine Ban Treaty, the so-called Ottawa Convention, Plestina said.
The 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer or Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction has so far been signed by 144 countries, and Croatia was among the first countries to sign it in 1997.
In late 2002, acting in line with the Convention, Croatia destroyed its mine stockpiles three months before the deadline, Plestina said.
Once Serbia and Montenegro destroys its mine stockpiles, this region will be the first region without such mines, the workshop heard.
The Zagreb conference will be the first conference after the Nairobi 2004 review conference, which set guidelines for future mine action.
Croatia is a mine-infested country, but it finances from its budget 85 percent of de-mining activities, unlike less developed countries, which are not encountering this problem, Plestina said.
Croatia is offering its know-how and experience in organising mine action centres and Croatian experts are visiting other countries in the region for that purpose, while representatives from those countries are visiting Croatia to become acquainted with its model of mine removal, Plestina said.
The regional centre for the psycho-social rehabilitation of mine victims in Rovinj is the first such centre in the world, she said, adding that young mine victims from the entire region were being treated in the centre, which plans to offer help also to victims outside South-East Europe.