INTERNATIONAL DEMINING REPRESENTATIVES VISIT CROATIA

BOGDANOVCI, Sept 5 (Hina) - The manager of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), one of the leading international institutions in the field of humanitarian mine- clearance, Ambassador Martin Dahinden, and the GICHD operations director Ian Mansfield visited Bogdanovci in eastern Croatia's Vukovar-Srijem County on Thursday. #L# Representatives of Croatia's Mine Action Centre briefed the guests about the implementation of mine clearing projects and exhibited their mine clearing machines, which are manufactured locally. The quality of mine clearance evident in Croatia is not seen in other countries which have been mined, Dahinden said. He emphasised the need to transfer Croatia's experiences to other countries which have mine fields. According to data from the Croatian Mine Action Centre, in the past ten years 1,867 people were victims of mines. Of these, 421 were killed. There is still 1,700 square kilometres in 14 Croatian counties that need to be cleared of mines. The GICHD was founded in 1998 with the aim of offering support for anti-mining activities on an international level, particularly through the UN network. (hina) sp/ha sb