Contamination and Impact

Overall Mine Action Performance: POOR[1]

Mines

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is heavily contaminated with mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) primarily as a result of the 1992–1995 conflict related to the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Most of the minefields are in the zone of separation between BiH’s two political entities—the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS)—which is 1,100km long and up to 4km wide. In southern and central BiH, mines were often used randomly, with few records kept. Some of the affected territory is mountainous or heavily forested, but the fertile agricultural belt in Brčko district is one of the most heavily contaminated areas.[2]

The BiH Mine Action Centre (BHMAC) reported total contamination of 1,219km² at the end of 2013, a reduction of some 3.5% on 2012, in 9,416 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs). A general assessment completed in 2012 identified 540,000 people in 1,417 communities as affected by mines, of which 136 communities (152,000 people) were at high risk.[3] BHMAC’s next general assessment is planned for 2015.[4]

BiH was severely affected by the Balkan flood disaster in May 2014. On 23 May, BHMAC met with the directors of the mine action centers of Serbia and Croatia to coordinate their response to the threat of mines washed into areas previously considered safe. The centers pledged to share information, emphasize risk education (MRE) in the flood-affected zones, engage in emergency marking once the floods recede, and raise awareness of the impact of the lack of funds for mine action.[5]

Within Bosnia, 70% of the flood-affected area is in the mine-affected communities of Doboj, Maglaj, Olovo, Una-Sana Canton, Brčko, and Posavina area.[6] The UN reported that some 800km² of SHA was affected by the floods; the United States (US) Department of State reported the figure of 320km².[7] Bosnian authorities reported that the floods had moved mines, cluster munitions, and unexploded ordnance (UXO), and had damaged minefield fencing and signs. At an ammunition depot in Orasje, some 250 tons of ammunition were reported as being under water on 25 May 2014. There was a mine explosion in Brčko on 21 May 2014; no casualties were reported.[8] Landmine Survivors Initiatives reported that more than 3,000 mine survivors were living in the flood-affected region.[9]

Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) mine action personnel worked with local crisis coordination centers to provide landmine survey and mapping support to the emergency response in Brčko, Orasje, and Samac, to conduct MRE, and to place 52 emergency mine signs in Domaljecac-Samac. In May 2014, NPA also responded to emergency explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) tasks in Brčko and Samac, destroying five items of UXO and one antipersonnel mine.[10]

On 26 May, the US Department of State deployed its Quick Reaction Force (QRF) of civilian EOD experts to Bosnia to “work with local officials of both the Serbian and BiH Mine Action Centers to survey landmine-contaminated areas affected by the recent widespread floods.”[11] The European Union (EU), including its peacekeeping force in BiH (EUFOR), deployed experts “to assess the impact of floods and landslides on the location of mines.”[12] Belgian First Aid, the Belgian Military Academy, and Vrije University Brussels’ Department of Electronics and Informatics deployed an unmanned aerial vehicle and operating team to BiH to assist survey efforts.[13]

UNDP disseminated maps of the flooded mined areas through its Bosnia website.[14] The ICRC and National Society reported it was working with BHMAC to provide MRE.[15]

Cluster munition remnants

Aircraft of the former Yugoslav republic dropped BL-755 cluster bombs in the early stages of the 1992−1995 war, and there are indications that cluster bombs were subsequently used by NATO forces in Republika Srpska.[16]

The first phase of a general survey completed by NPA in 2011 identified 140 areas hit by air strikes and artillery, with an estimated total of 3,774 submunitions; additional contamination was located around a former ammunition factory at Pretis that was hit by a NATO air strike, scattering submunitions in the surrounding area. The survey identified 669 SHA polygons covering a total of 12.18km², of which 3.23km² is believed to be high risk. Some 5km² is contaminated by artillery-delivered submunitions, 3.9km² by BL-755, and 3.1km² by KB-1 submunition remnants.[17] SHAs were found in 39 municipalities, but 43% of the total SHA was located in the municipalities of Bužim, Cazin, Gornji, Tešanj, Travnik, Vakuf, and Vareš, with a total population of more than 226,660 inhabitants. Total cluster munition casualties recorded in BiH between 1992 and 2010 amounted to 42 people killed and a further 181 injured. Agricultural land and forest make up more than 82% of the total SHA, with land needed for housing and reconstruction accounting for another 15%.[18]

Other explosive remnants of war

Demining operations in BiH continue to clear scattered UXO. In addition, BiH has an area of more than 1km² in the vicinity of Zunovica, Hadzici where a Yugoslav National Army barracks and ammunition storage area was bombed in 1995. As of May 2013, the type of contamination had not been identified.[19]

Mine Action Program

The Demining Commission, under the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communication, supervises the state-wide BHMAC and represents BiH in its relations with the international community on mine-related issues. The Demining Commission’s three members, representing BiH’s three majority ethnic groups (Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats), propose the appointment of BHMAC senior staff for approval by the Council of Ministers, report to the council on mine action, approve accreditation of demining organizations, and facilitate cooperation between the FBiH and RS.

However, the principle of organizing BiH state-level bodies along ethnic lines has come under increasing scrutiny following the 2009 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Sejdić and Finci case that the rights of two Bosnians of Roma and Jewish descent had been violated by being denied the opportunity to run for high-level elected office because they were not of the major ethnic groups.[20] A Demining Commissioner stated that efforts to establish a new Demining Law (see below) may either abolish the Demining Commission or add another member for “Others.”[21]

BHMAC, established by a 2002 Decree of the Council of Ministers, is responsible for regulating mine action and implementing BiH’s demining plan, including accreditation of all mine action organizations.[22] BHMAC operates from its headquarters in Sarajevo and through two entity mine action offices—formerly autonomous entity mine action centers—and eight regional offices (Sarajevo, Pale, Travnik, Mostar, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Brčko, and Bihać). The two entity offices coordinate the activities of regional offices in planning, survey, and quality control/assurance. Quality assurance inspectors are based in the regional offices.[23]

Since 2008, efforts have been made to adopt new mine action legislation in BiH with a view to creating a stable platform for mine action funding by the government and local authorities.[24] However, a draft law prepared by the Ministry of Civil Affairs with support from BHMAC and UNDP, first submitted to parliament in February 2010, failed to gain parliamentary approval in 2012. The law is said to face resistance from Bosnian Serb nationalist parties concerned about concentrating functions at the state level and from Bosnian Croat nationalists concerned about losing the ethnic quota on the Demining Commission,[25] as well as from demining personnel dissatisfied with the current BHMAC director.[26]

As of April 2014, the law had still not passed and according to a BHMAC official was unlikely to be reintroduced to parliament before the elections in October 2014.[27] A demining commissioner suggested the earliest a law could be passed would be in 2015.[28] This lack of a new legal framework has contributed to BiH’s repeated failure to meet its funding targets under its own mine action strategy. Moreover, in 2013 and through early 2014, BiH mine action governance received increasingly critical media attention. Newspapers called attention to the almost 12 years the BHMAC director has been in office.[29] There are currently no term limits on the position, one of the issues that the draft demining law has sought to address.[30]

In 2012, eight local companies and NGOs filed a criminal complaint with the State Prosecutor against the BHMAC director, alleging irregularities in tendering demining contracts and sale of official vehicles. Reports about the investigation reemerged in the BiH media in early 2014. The director was arrested by police in April 2014 which, along with the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), searched BHMAC premises and the director’s house.[31] According to a spokesperson of the State Prosecutor’s office: “The suspect is under investigation for activities related to demining and over suspicions that he abused his official position and made illegal profits.”[32] A BHMAC statement said, “The process of demining in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a large humanitarian undertaking, because it depends on donors and their grants and, due to that, we have to be completely transparent to the public…We hope that after this, negative media reports about BHMAC will end so that the process of humanitarian demining can be completed.”[33] A local demining NGO official said he thought it was “one of the most dangerous times for mine action in Bosnia” as the negative press is drawing attention from “the good things” mine action is doing.[34] “It’s not good for BHMAC to be in the papers in that way,” a BHMAC official said, “But in terms of operations, we are still going.”[35] A Demining Commissioner said, “Of course this is very bad for demining in Bosnia” and that it “is now up to us” to “remove the doubts” of donors by providing “explanations” and “increasing the pace and performance of obligations with capacities that we have. We cannot stand and wait, but we have to work and act, and each should be responsible for their actions.”[36] The director of BHMAC was conditionally released from custody on 9 May 2014.[37]

The BiH Mine Action Strategy for 2009–2019 sets the target of becoming free of mines by 2019 and identifies seven strategic goals, including the elimination of the mine threat. BHMAC conducted the first of three planned revisions of the strategy in 2012 and 2013 (the other two are due in 2015 and 2017, respectively).[38] The revision asserted lack of funding as “one of the major reasons” for BiH’s slow progress to completion of its clearance goals.[39] In 2014, BHMAC was elaborating new standing operating procedures for land release, including technical survey (TS), that were expected to accelerate cancellation of SHAs.[40]

National demining operators operational in 2013 included governmental actors (BiH Armed Forces, FBiH Civil Protection Agency, RS Civil Protection, and Brčko District Civil Protection Agency); local NGOs (UG Demira, Svijet bez mina, DOK-ING deminiranje, “Pazi mine Vitez,” Pro Vita, STOP Mines, Udruženje za eliminaciju mina, and UEM); and commercial companies (Amphibia, Detektor, N&N IVSA, and POINT). There are three international demining operators in BiH: two NGOs (INTERSOS and NPA) and one commercial company (UXB Balkans).

Since 2010, NPA has increasingly focused on building the capacity of the BiH Armed Forces’ Demining Battalion. NPA’s own strategic plan foresees withdrawal from BiH mine action in March 2015. However, given the slow progress of clearance in BiH, it is considering extending its mine action program, depending on donor support.[41] Handicap International (HI) ended its mine action activities in BiH at the end of 2012 and had closed down its office by March 2013.[42] HI withdrew from BiH as part of an effort to focus on countries with lower human development indices.[43]

In 2013, INTERSOS conducted mine clearance and MRE in Sarajevo and Mostar, with funding from Italian Cooperation and the city of Ilijas. INTERSOS also implemented MRE in Pale Praca Municipality, reaching 500 beneficiaries.  INTERSOS reported that it had “completed its mission in Bosnia” at the end of 2013, stating that “since many other local NGOs and international companies are active in the country, the presence of an international emergency NGO such as INTERSOS is no longer necessary.”[44]

Land Release

BiH released a total of 44.3km² of mined area in 2013, 57% of the amount achieved in 2012 and less than a third of the amount planned. Of the total, nearly three-quarters (33km²) was cancelled by non-technical survey (NTS). A further 9km² was released by technical survey (TS), more than in 2012, while full clearance accounted for almost 1.9km², also an increase on the previous year,[45] but only one-fifth of what had been planned. This is not an impressive return on more than US$20 million of funding. Moreover, at current rates of output, it may take several decades to clear BiH of mine contamination.

Mine clearance in 2009–2013 (km²)

Survey in 2013

BHMAC conducted general/non-technical and technical survey over a total area of almost 125km² in 2013, about 64% of the target (195km²), releasing 42km², most through non-technical survey (78%).[46] BHMAC reported that 14 organizations carried out 163 technical survey tasks over a total area of 11.83km², releasing 9.17km².[47] A total of 52 persons were employed in 22 survey teams in 2013.[48] In 2014, NPA noted that releasing large areas of land through non-technical survey is “becoming more and more difficult” and that applying other methods including targeted technical survey will make possible more efficient land release.[49]

Release of mined areas in 2013

Mine clearance in 2013

Twenty-eight organizations were accredited with BHMAC for demining at the end of 2013 with a total staff of 1,529, of whom 1,115 were deminers.[50] However, only 18 organizations participated in clearance operations in 2013. More than half of them engaged in small tasks, clearing less than 100,000m² during the year.

Overall, operators cleared a total of 1.89km², well below the 2009–2019 mine action strategy target of 9.27km².[51]

BHMAC attributed the shortfall to “lack of funding.”[52] It said it had planned mine action expenditure of BAM80.00 million (US$54 million), but actual spending had amounted to less than half that figure, reaching only BAM35.50 million ($24 million), of which BAM16.7 million ($11.36 million, or 81%) came from national sources and the balance from international donors.[53] Analysis shows that BiH provides a larger proportion of its national GDP to mine action than many other mine-affected countries.[54] Nevertheless, analysis by NPA shows that in the first five years of the 2009–2019 strategy, international donors contributed almost 95% of the planned funding commitments. In fact, the main shortfall has been in national funding: 35% short of the targets set out in the 10-year mine action strategy.

Mine clearance in 2013[55]

Quality management

In 2013, quality assurance inspectors issued 22 decisions to shut down work, four decisions ordering demining to be repeated, and one decision revoking demining authorization.[56] Tests of 342 detectors found 59 (17%) not working, an extremely high figure. Inspectors also tested 108 mine detection dog teams, passing 89 and failing three. They also evaluated six machines and the equipment and assets of 27 accredited operators.[57]

Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the 10-year extension request granted by States Parties in 2008), BiH is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2019.

There is broad agreement in the BiH mine action community that BiH is highly unlikely to complete clearance by 2019.[58] Government and NGO officials raised concerns that political problems at state level were preventing the development of an enabling mine action policy framework.[59] In 2013, as in all the years since it received the extension to its initial Article 5 deadline, BiH fell far short of its land release targets. As a result, five years into its extension period, BiH had achieved only 55% of the land release planned for this period and less than a quarter of planned clearance. It is facing decades of work to fulfil its Article 5 obligations. A representative of the Demining Commission admitted “doubt” that BiH could meet the “deadline by which we were required to clean BiH of mines.”[60]

The BiH government has stated that completion of clearance and land release will “largely depend” on availability of funding.[61] Operators are using less than half of available human resources; lack of consistent funding throughout the years “has a particularly bad effect on commercial and non-governmental” demining organizations.[62] BHMAC has expressed concern that timing donor awards to tenders in the autumn means that demining activities are interrupted by the winter, reducing the efficiency of clearance; ideally, tenders should be awarded in late winter to take advantage of the spring season.[63] According to BHMAC, closer donor monitoring of tasks they fund—put in place in response to concerns about mismanagement—also slows down task allocation.[64]

BHMAC hopes further funds will be made available by municipalities.[65] However, the BiH government acknowledges that a “financial boost” in the next five years is “improbable.” Thus BHMAC believes improved technologies and amendments to the standard operating procedures for mine action, to be adopted by the end of 2014, will help to accelerate TS and land release.[66] However, as expressed by one NGO representative, BiH “still has a really big chunk” of land that requires full clearance. It is uncertain whether improvements to survey methods will speed clearance of the core areas of contamination.[67]

Clearance of cluster munition contaminated areas in 2013

NPA, the only operator accredited in BiH for clearance and survey of cluster munitions, released a total of 2.35km² in 2013, 90% of this through non-technical and technical survey.[68]

Release of SHAs/CHAs containing cluster munition remnants in 2013

Note: U-SUBS = unexploded submunitions

In 2014, NPA expected to release about 3.1km² of cluster munition-affected land, of which about 2.1km² was to be through non-technical survey and the rest through technical survey and clearance.[69]

During 2013, BiH adopted chapter XVI of the BiH Mine Action Standard, regarding clearance and technical survey of areas contaminated by cluster munitions. It also drafted a Standing Operating Procedure (SOP) for general survey of cluster munition-contaminated areas.[70]

Compliance with Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, BiH is required to destroy all cluster munition remnants in areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2021. The government has not assigned responsibility for clearing cluster munitions—this would require an updated Demining Law—but NPA is supporting BHMAC in deciding how to address the problem.[71]

NPA has begun training the BiH Army’s Demining Battalion in cluster munition clearance and hopes the government Civil Protection units will get involved soon.[72]

The limited extent of submunition contamination and the rate of progress made in survey and clearance suggests BiH should be able to fulfill its Article 4 obligations within the initial 10-year deadline. BHMAC hopes it can complete clearance of all known cluster munition contamination by 2015.[73]

Support for Mine Action

National and international donors provided more than US$24.7 million of mine action funding in 2013, an increase on 2012 (US$22.05 million), which BHMAC said explained the slight increase in land cleared.[74] BHMAC stated that it expected a similar level of funding for 2014.[75]

Recommendations

·         Act quickly to restore public and donor confidence in BiH demining by establishing a solid policy framework for mine action through passing a new Demining Law and increasing national funding.

·         Secure ongoing commitment of funding from international donors, encouraging them to commit to long-term grants that enable efficient planning of clearance.

·         Develop new SOPs for technical survey and land release.