A free phone number for information dissemination on mine fields in BiH- 0800 50 700 successfully launched

On Tuesday, August 11, 2009 a press conference held today in BHMAC, marked the launching of a free phone number for information dissemination on mine fields in BiH- 0800 50 700, was. The aim of presented number is to encourage all citizens to provide BH MAC information about existing the minefields in BiH and to contribute the mass reduction of mine suspect areas and improvement of security for residents that live in the nearby area.



According to the conducted evaluation, current suspect area in BiH is 1620 km2. Overall number of mine impacted communities is 1631, with estimated number of 900 000 of impacted people.
It is assumption that there are still 220 000 mines and UXO in BiH.
Up to now there were 1670 mine victims, out of which 96 deminers.
A lot of efforts has been put into clearance and identification of mine areas, but they can still be found all over the area. It is very complicated to locate mines, many of them were not properly documented, records are lost or haven’t been created at all. There are significant problem to finalize mine situation: minefields are mainly of irregular shape with individual mines or groups of mines in the wider area.
BH MAC along with EUFOR, NATO and BIH Armed Forces, has introduced the free phone number available to all citizens who posses information about minefields in BiH.
Considering 10 mine incidents in this year in which ten persons were injured (3 children), the importance of this project was emphasized once more and all citizens who could be of any help were invited to call free number 0800 50 700 and to contribute in overall reduction of victims’ number and in this way to improve the general security in future period.