Contaminated by: cluster munition remnants (light contamination), landmines (light contamination), and other unexploded ordnance (UXO).

Article 5 deadline: 1 March 2019
(Not on track to meet deadline)

Non-signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

As of April 2017, 2.63km² was suspected to contain antipersonnel mines in the Republic of Serbia, an increase on 2016 due to newly identified mined areas. In 2016, no mined area was released by survey or clearance. This is a decrease from 2015, when 1.17km² of mined area was released, including 0.41km² through clearance. In 2016, non-technical survey increased suspected hazardous area (SHA) by 0.7km².

At the end of 2016, Serbia had 0.83km² confirmed to contain cluster munition remnants, and a further 2km² suspected to contain cluster munition remnants, over six municipalities. This is a slight reduction since the end of 2015. In 2016, 0.25km² of land was released through clearance and 0.92km² was reduced by technical survey, compared to a total of 1.59km² released through clearance and technical survey in 2015. Nine submunitions were destroyed through survey and clearance, a huge reduction from the 235 destroyed in 2015.

Recommendations for action

• Serbia should identify funding, including from national sources, and then clear all remaining contamination as soon as possible.
• Serbia should complete the development of national mine action standards as soon as possible. Land release should conform to the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).

Mine Contamination

As of 1 April 2017, 13 SHAs in Bujanovac covering more than 2.63km² were suspected to contain antipersonnel mines (see table below).[1] This represents an increase, compared to the estimated 1.94km² of mined area across 13 suspected mined areas as of February 2016,[2] and is due to newly identified mined area discovered during non-technical survey conducted by the Serbian Mine Action Center (SMAC) in 2016.[3]

Bujanovac is the only municipality in Serbia still contaminated. The contamination represents mines of an unknown origin and type, which have not been emplaced to follow a pattern, and for which there are no minefield records.[4]

Antipersonnel mine contamination by village (as at April 2017)[5]

Previously, for 2013, Serbia had reported 1.2km² of confirmed mined area and 2km² of suspected mined area. However, SMAC subsequently decided to re-categorize all confirmed areas as only suspected, based on a reassessment of earlier survey results that revealed a small number of mines across a relatively large area. In line with more efficient land release methodology, which emphasizes the need for evidence to confirm areas as hazardous, in 2015 SMAC announced its intention to use an integrated approach using survey, manual demining, mine detection dogs (MDDs), and other assets to cancel suspected areas without contamination.[6] However, following a change of director in the final quarter of 2015, the decision was taken to prioritize clearance over survey.[7]

Historically, mine contamination in Serbia can be divided into two phases. The first was a legacy of the armed conflicts associated with the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The second concerned use of mines in 2000–2001 in the municipalities of Bujanovac and Preševo by a non-state armed group, the Liberation Army of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medvedja (OVPBM). The contamination remaining in Serbia is a result of this later phase.[8] Contamination also exists within Kosovo (see separate report).

Bujanovac is one of Serbia’s least-developed municipalities economically.[9] The affected areas are mainly mountainous, but are close to population centers.[10] Mined areas are said to impede safe access to local roads, grazing land for cattle, tobacco growing, and mushroom picking. In addition, mine contamination impacts negatively on potential construction projects for tobacco-processing facilities and other infrastructure.[11]

Serbia is also contaminated with explosive remnants of war (ERW).

Cluster Munition Contamination

As of 1 April 2017, Serbia had 10 areas covering a total of 0.83km² confirmed to contain cluster munition remnants, while a further 13 areas over 2km² are suspected to contain cluster munition remnants (see table below).[12] This compares to reported contamination as of the end of 2015 of 11 confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) over a total of 0.89km², and 14 SHAs over 2.24km².[13]

Cluster munition contamination by municipality (as at 1 April 2017)[14]

Cluster munition contamination results from NATO air strikes in 1999. According to Serbia, NATO cluster munitions struck 16 municipalities: Brus, Bujanovac, Cacak, Gadžin Han, Knic, Kraljevo, Kuršumlija, Leposavic, Niš city-Crveni Krst, Niš city-Medijana, Preševo, Raška, Sjenica, Sopot, Stara Pazova, and Vladimirci.[15] In late 2014, a suspected area was newly identified in Tutin, a municipality not previously thought to be contaminated by cluster munition remnants.[16]

Contamination in Serbia has a socio-economic impact as well as posing a humanitarian threat, impeding safe access to forest products, cattle, and mushroom picking. These represent main sources of income in some of the most underdeveloped municipalities, including Bujanovac, Sjenica, and Tutin. In addition, cluster munition contamination impacts transport infrastructure, as well as the development of tourism.[17]

Contamination also exists within Kosovo (see separate profile on Kosovo).

Program Management

The Sector for Emergency Management, under the Ministry of Interior, acts as the mine action authority, according to the Decree on Protection against Unexploded Ordnance (“Official Gazette of RS,” No. 70/13).[18] It is responsible for developing standard operating procedures; accrediting demining operators; and supervising the work of the Serbian Mine Action Center (SMAC).[19] SMAC is responsible for the coordination of demining; collection and management of mine action information (including casualty data); and survey of SHAs. It also has a mandate to plan demining projects, conduct quality control (QC) and monitor operations, ensure implementation of international standards, license demining organizations, and conduct risk education.[20] A new director of SMAC was appointed by the Serbian government in the autumn of 2015.[21]

SMAC reported that in 2016, restructuring resulted in a greater proportion of operational posts related to survey, project development, and QC.[22]

Standards

According to SMAC, survey and clearance operations in Serbia are conducted in accordance with IMAS.[23]

In April 2017, SMAC reported that along with the relevant national authorities, it was in the process of establishing a commission to develop national standards/national standard operating procedures to define methods and techniques for humanitarian demining in Serbia.[24] However, this process has been hindered due to lack of capacity.[25]

The SMAC uses non-technical survey to identify areas suspected of containing mines, but prefers to then move directly to clearance, rather than using technical survey to more accurately identify the boundaries of contamination.[26] However, where appropriate, SMAC will conduct technical survey, in a form adjusted to the context of Serbia.[27]

SMAC has reported that the results of the initial survey data are analyzed and then further non-technical survey is conducted to assess conditions in the field, and to gather statements by the local population, hunters, foresters, representatives of Civil Protection, and the police, among others. Data on mine incidents is another significant indicator.[28]

According to SMAC, there is limited potential to obtain additional information on the location of mined areas from those who laid the mines during the conflict.[29] SMAC uses the results of the non-technical survey to “enable the defining of confirmed hazardous areas for which SMAC develops corresponding project tasks to commence demining tasks. Critical to this is the cancellation of areas registered as mine suspected areas that, through survey, are confirmed not to contain mines (in accordance with IMAS).”[30]

SMAC’s primary concern about using technical survey as a next step to further delineate confirmed mined area is its lack of confidence that such survey can effectively identify clusters of unrecorded mines.[31] Most of the remaining suspected mined areas in Serbia are mountainous with challenging terrain and thick vegetation. The fact that these areas have not been accessed since the end of the conflict, due to suspicion of mines, means that the land is unmanaged, making is even less accessible. SMAC considers that most of the suspected mined areas are therefore, not appropriate for the use of MDDs or machinery.[32]

Information management

SMAC does not use the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) at present.[33]

Operators

SMAC conducts survey of areas suspected to contain mines, cluster munition remnants, or other ERW. Clearance is conducted by commercial companies and NGOs, which are selected through public tender procedures executed by ITF Enhancing Human Security.[34] No mine clearance operations were conducted in Serbia in 2016.[35]

An explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) department within the Sector for Emergency Management, in the Ministry of Interior, responds to call-outs for individual items of ERW discovered, and is also responsible for the demolition of items found by SMAC.[36]

Land Release (mines)

No mined area in Serbia was released by survey or clearance in 2016.[37] This represents a decrease compared to 2015 when 0.41km² was cleared.[38] The failure to release land in 2016 was reported to be due to lack of funding.[39]

Survey in 2016 (mines)

SMAC reported that it conducted non-technical survey in 2016 and early 2017, which resulted in an increase of almost 0.7km² in SHA.[40]

Progress in 2017 (mines)

In 2017, SMAC reported that it had developed a technical survey project for 2017, totaling almost 1km², which will confirm or reject suspicion of mine contamination in the project area. Area confirmed as contaminated will then be subject to clearance, and the remaining area canceled. Having submitted the project to the ITF Enhancing Human Security, SMAC secured funding for the project from national sources matched by international funding from the United States. As at August 2017, tender procedures were being finalized for the selection of a contractor.[41]

Land Release (cluster munition remnants)

In 2016, a total of 0.25km² of cluster munition-contaminated area was released by clearance, while 0.09km² was reduced by technical survey.[42]

Survey in 2016 (cluster munition remnants)

In 2016, a total of 92,150m² was reduced by technical survey.[43] This represents a decrease compared to 2015, when 1.4km² was reduced by technical survey and 1km² was canceled by non-technical survey.[44]

Clearance in 2016 (cluster munition remnants)

In 2016, two areas totaling 247,032m² were cleared by contractors (see table below).[45] This represents an increase in output over 2015, when 0.18km² was cleared.[46]

Clearance of cluster munition-contaminated areas in 2016[47]

Note: BiH = Bosnia and Herzogina.

Deminer safety

One deminer was injured in August 2016, during a cluster munition clearance project on Kopaonik mountain in the municipality of Raška.[48]

Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the five-year extension granted by States Parties in 2013), Serbia 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. Serbia is not on track to meet this deadline.

As late as May 2012, Serbia had hoped to meet its original Article 5 deadline,[49] but in March 2013 it applied for a five-year extension. In granting the request, the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties noted that “implementation could proceed much faster if Serbia was able to cover part of demining costs and thereby become more attractive for external funding.” The States Parties further noted that the plan presented by Serbia was “workable, but it lacks ambition, particularly given the small amount of mined area in question.”[50]

Serbia’s claim to continued jurisdiction over Kosovo entails legal responsibility for remaining mined areas under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty. However, Serbia did not include such areas in its extension request estimate of remaining contamination or plans for the extension period.

In the last five years, Serbia has cleared less than one square kilometer of mined area (see table below).

Mine clearance in 2012–2016

Serbia has fallen behind the clearance plan it set out in its 2013 Article 5 deadline extension request, which envisaged clearance of just under 0.49km² in 2013; just over 0.57km² in 2014; and just over 4.1km² in 2015.[51] In its original extension request Serbia also predicted it would complete survey by the end of 2015, which it did not achieve. In 2015, Serbia reported that it had adjusted its extension request plan and predicted that of the remaining 2.85km² of mined area, some 1.2km² would be surveyed in 2015 and the remaining 1.65km² in 2016. Of this, Serbia expected to clear a total of 1.6km² by 2018: 0.4km² in 2015, 0.6km² in 2016, and 0.6km² in 2017.[52]

In March 2016, Serbia submitted an updated workplan to the Mine Ban Treaty Implementation Support Unit, announcing plans
to address 0.8km² in 2016; 0.6km² in 2017; and 0.52km²
in 2018; and to carry out “additional check-up and verification” in 2019.[53]

However, Serbia was already falling behind on the 2016 updated workplan, as no land was released in 2016. Furthermore, non-technical survey resulted in an increase of 0.7km² in the total mined area.[54] In April 2017, Serbia included a new updated completion workplan in its Article 7 transparency report. It now plans to address five areas totaling 1km² in 2017; five areas totaling 1.2km² in 2018; and three areas totaling 0.45km²
in 2019.[55] Serbia cautioned that implementation of clearance projects might be affected by funding, but that if additional funds were provided, the work could be completed more quickly.[56]

In addition, Serbia reported that it faced additional challenges in complying with its Article 5 deadline, noting again that the remaining mine contamination is of an unknown origin, with mines having been emplaced with no particular pattern and without minefield records; climatic conditions preventing access to some contaminated areas for parts of the year; and challenges posed by contamination from cluster munition remnants and other UXO.[57] While its latest Article 7 report does include Serbia’s intention to undertake non-technical survey to delineate confirmed mined areas for clearance and cancel areas with no evidence of mine-contamination, the report does not make any reference to the use of technical survey, and only references the use of full clearance to release confirmed mined areas.[58]

Serbia has stated that despite economic difficulties and the lack of national funding it remains strongly committed to making Serbia mine-free by 2019, and will make all efforts to meet its Article 5 deadline.[59] However, no land was released by survey or clearance in 2016, and unless funds are secured to implement Serbia’s latest updated completion plan, it seems unlikely that Serbia will meet its deadline.

Progress toward cluster munition clearance

In 2010–2013, significant progress was made in clearing cluster munition-contaminated areas, but since then progress has stalled. Less than 5km² in total has been cleared in the last five years (see table below).

Clearance of cluster munition remnants in 2012–2016[60]

According to SMAC, progress in cluster munition clearance is contingent on funding. In April 2017, Serbia predicted that if adequate funds for implementation of survey and clearance projects were secured, cluster munition remnant clearance could be finished in three years.[61] However, if international funds are not secured for 2017, SMAC will prioritize its national funding towards mine-related survey and clearance operations, rather than cluster munition clearance.[62]

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the mine action research in 2017, including on survey and clearance, and shared all its resulting landmine and cluster munition reports with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.