CROATIA HAS TO REMOVE ONE MILLION UNDETECTED MINES

( Editorial: --> 0903 ) SISAK, Sept 16 (Hina) - There is about one million unremoved mines in an area of about 6,000 square kilometres in Croatia. Since the Croatian authorities plan to clear about 400 sq km of land per year, it will take 15 years to remove all the mines, Croatian Mine-Removal Centre head Damir Gorseta told US military attache John Adams during a visit to the Centre in Sisak. There is no precise information from the ground on the location of mine fields and new detection methods are needed to speed up the process, Gorseta said. Croatia needs help in the de-mining process since cleared areas are a precondition for the normalisation of life and return of people to the war-affected areas, Gorseta said. Since the liberation of areas which were under Serb occupation in 1995, undetected mines have injured 560 people, including 156 children. Of that number, 95 people died, including eight pyrotechnicians, Gorseta said. The Mine-Removal Centre, which was founded on April 1 this year, has established a system of planned and organised mine removal. (hina) jn rml /mbr 161943 MET sep 98