GERMANY MAKES DONATION TO CROATIAN MINE ACTION CENTRE

SISAK, June 20 (Hina) - Germany's military envoy to Croatia, Lt. Col. Johannes Hellenschmidt, on Tuesday presented the Croatian Mine Action Centre (HCR) in Sisak with aid comprising device for marking mine fields in Croatia worth DM100,000. The donation consists of 13,000 warning signs, 16,500 posts, 165,000m of wire fence, and 40,000m of plastic marking tape, and is a continuation of support to Croatia in mine-clearing, said Hellenschmidt. He announced this year Germany would assist in the mine-clearing of roads leading to the Adriatic coast, in cooperation with WEUDAM, the Western European Union Demining Assistance Mission, and UNMAP, a United Nations mission assisting in mine-clearing in Croatia. Hellenschmidt said this would be Germany's support to the development of tourism in war-affected areas along the coastline. He added Germany will also assist in other humanitarian mine- clearing projects. Hellenschmidt said Germany would also support UNMAP's becoming a UN development agency. Damir Jaksic, HCR's assistant planning, mine-clearing, and supervising manager, thanked the German delegate on the valuable donation. "We believe that by marking suspect mined fields we shall save a human life. We are grateful to German friends for helping us in this humane action," Jaksic said. (hina) ha jn