Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, who attended the ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of HCR in Sisak, said that the government would provide full support in the fight against mines, considering that there were still 405.9 square kilometres of mine suspected areas, most of which is mountainous regions.
After systematically collecting data based on available maps and information, in 2005 we identified 1,174 square kilometres of mine suspected areas. To date, 566 square kilometres of that has been cleared of mines with investments amounting to 727 million euro. As much as 97 million euro was secured from EU funds. Last year the EU provided 62% of the funds for mine clearance and this year it is planned that that will be 52%.
One of the HCR's greatest successes is that last year, for the first time since it has been in operation, there was not one accident during mine clearance. Unfortunately, since 1996, there have been 595 casualties from leftover mines, and 203 of them were fatalities. In that period 38 mine clearing specialists lost their lives.