Portfolio Serbia

Country located in South Eastern Europe, 88,361 km2. Population; 7.5 million inhabitants (data on population is not including the Kosovo province). Population composition; 83% Serb, 3.9% Hungarian, 1.81% Bosniak, 1.44% Roma, 1.08% Jugoslav, 0.94% Croat, 0.82% Albanian, other 7.01%.

Cause and scope of the landmine problem along the border with Croatia
Following the Croatian independence declaration in 1991, a conflict arouse between the Croatian and Serbian forces in Croatia with the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) taking the side of Serbian forces. In 1992 JNA pulled out of Croatia. During the conflict that lasted from 1991 to 1995 fighting never occurred on the territory of the Republic of Serbia. However, parts of the border between Serbia and Croatia were mined during the conflict as a preventive measure. At the end of 2007 ca 2.4 million square meters remains mine suspected in the area along that border. Consequently, mine contamination now presents an obstacle to development of the region and impede on efficient border control for both countries. Most of the mine suspected area lies in the municipality of Sid, which is populated by approximately 40,000 citizens.

NPA Mine Action history in country
NPA started a mine action project in Serbia in October 2006 at the request of the Serbian Mine Action Centre. The project is run by the NPA Mine Action Programme in Croatia. Geographical focus for the NPA mine action project in Serbia is the municipality of Sid on the border to Croatia, stretching from the town of Sid to the Sava River in the west on the border between Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The long term goal of the project is to contribute to demining of the border between Serbia and Croatia in order to enable the local population to safely resume normal activities, free from the threat of mines, to enable rehabilitation of the region to proceed, and to assist the Serbian government to reach its goal of completing clearance operations as soon as possible

. In Serbia NPA implements task impact assessment/community liaison, technical survey and mine clearance. As of November 2007, through mine clearance NPA released the land covering ca 640,000 m2. NPA starts a cluster munitions survey project in Serbia in November 2007, under the supervision and support from the NPA MA Programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Capacity
Personnel: 27 national staff as of November 2007.

The staff consist of two technical survey / manual clearance teams and one medical team. Management, administration and logistics is provided from the NPA MA Programme in Croatia and the NPA Regional Office in Belgrade.

Donors
The core programme funding comes from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Additional donors have been the Kingdom of Spain through International Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF) and the US State Department through ITF.

Links

Norwegian People's Aid Regional Office: www.npa.org.yu

Landmine Monitor Report for Serbia: http://www.icbl.org/lm/2007/serbia_montenegro