This is the first time a conference on the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction is held in a European country which is not Switzerland, which shows that Croatia's role in mine action is appreciated, reporters were told at the beginning of the conference.
Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, under whose auspices the conference is being held, stressed the importance of responsibility and cooperation in mine action.
The universalisation of the Ottawa Convention, the destruction of anti-personnel mines, de-mining and assistance to mine victims will be the main tasks in the coming period, reads the Zagreb Progress Report, drawn up by Austria and Croatia before the start of the conference.
Grabar Kitarovic said that the report, to be adopted on Friday, the last day of the conference, focused on the progress made since the first review conference on the Ottawa Convention in Nairobi in 2004 and on defining guidelines for future activities.
Croatia is making considerable efforts to achieve the goals of the Convention and it has become a link between donor countries and countries in need of help, because it finances more than 80 percent of its anti-mine activities on its own, the minister said.
She went on to say that the issue of mines would not affect Croatia's accession talks with the European Union, but that de-mining was recognised as a development issue.
Bosnia-Herzegovina is among the most mine-infested countries, Bosnian Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic said, adding that some 2,000 square kilometres of the country's territory was believed to be infested with 600,000 mines.
This year Bosnia has invested 23 million euros into de-mining activities, of which one third are its own funds and two thirds are donations, Ivanic said.
Asked about de-mining in the area bordering with Croatia, Ivanic said that the de-mining of that area had already begun and that it would be a priority next year.
The conference was also addressed by the 1997 Nobel peace prize winner and ambassador of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Jody Williams.
The conference will be attended by some 700 representatives of NGOs, civil society, and experts on mine action from all around the world.