Contamination and Impact

The Republic of Serbia’s mine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) problem is a legacy of the armed conflict associated with the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Serbia’s mine problem is confined to its southern border with Kosovo.

Mines

Serbia reported that as of the end of 2013 mine contamination was limited to the municipalities of Bujanovac and Preševo, which had a total of 1.2km² of confirmed mined area and 2km² of suspected hazardous area (SHA).[1]

The affected areas are mainly hilly, are close to populated areas, and are important to local communities as grazing land for cattle, tobacco cultivation, and for access to forest products.[2]

Cluster munitions

Serbia’s cluster munition contamination results from NATO air strikes in 1999. According to Serbia, NATO cluster munitions struck 16 municipalities: Brus, Bujanovac, Čačak, Gadžin Han, Kraljevo, Knić, Kuršumlija, Leposavić, Niš city-Crveni Krst, Niš city-Medijana, Preševo, Raška, Sjenica, Sopot, Stara Pazova, and Vladimirci.[3] By the end of 2013, Serbia reported eight municipalities still affected[4] by confirmed hazardous areas totaling 592,824m² and SHAs totaling 5.64km².[5]

Mine Action Program

Serbia does not have an interministerial national mine action authority. The Serbian Mine Action Centre (SMAC) was established on 7 March 2002. A 2004 law made it responsible for 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 and monitor operations, ensure implementation of international standards, license demining organizations, and conduct risk education.[6]

SMAC does not carry out demining or employ deminers but does conduct survey of areas suspected to contain mines, cluster munition remnants, or other explosive remnants of war (ERW). Demining is conducted by commercial companies and NGOs, which are selected through public tender procedures executed by the ITF Enhancing Human Security.[7] Only Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) personnel seconded to SMAC have conducted survey in Serbia as well as undertaking clearance, but its operations ended in 2013 and all staff were laid off at the end of the year.[8]

Strategic planning

Serbia conducts mine action according to annual plans that are approved by the government and determined largely by availability of donor funding.[9] In 2013, Serbia was granted a five-year extension of its Article 5 clearance deadline until March 2019. The extension request assessed confirmed and suspected mine contamination of 3.3km². It set out plans for survey of 2.1km² and clearance of 2.28km² at a projected cost of €2.5 million (US$3.3 million[10]) but says 1km² of this “will be cancelled.” The projected survey was expected to lead to cancellation of about half the suspected area. It foresaw state funding of €150,000 a year to cover the costs of survey and SMAC activities, and expected donors to cover all the clearance costs.[11]

Land Release

Serbia released half a square kilometer of suspected mined area in Preševo in 2013 as a result of non-technical survey by NPA staff seconded to SMAC. Operations confirmed another 110,000m² of mined area.[12]

Mine clearance in 2013

In 2013, as in three of the last four years, Serbia conducted no mine clearance. SMAC had hoped to clear a small amount of mined area in 2013 funded through the ITF and had reported that Russia’s Emercom Demining would start under a three-year 2013−2015 humanitarian demining program, funded by Russia.[13] In the end, however, SMAC said it received no funding for mine clearance from donors, who had requested resources be allocated to clearance of cluster munition remnants and other unexploded ordnance (UXO).[14]

Five-year summary of clearance

Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, and in accordance with the five-year extension granted 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.

With confirmed and suspected mine contamination estimated at less than 5km² outside Kosovo, Serbia as late as May 2012 still held out hope of meeting its deadline,[15] but in March 2013 it applied for a five-year extension to its Article 5 deadline to complete the task.

In granting the request, the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties noted that Serbia “could benefit from developing a resource mobilization strategy as soon as possible” and that this “could benefit from Serbia covering part of the demining cost and that demonstrating national ownership in this manner could help facility cooperation and assistance efforts.” The States Parties further noted that the plan presented by Serbia was “workable but lacks ambition.”

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

Clearance of cluster munitions and UXO in 2013

Eight operators conducted clearance in 2013, compared with four the previous year, and released 70% more cluster-affected land—but four of the operators destroyed just six or less items and the total number of submunition remnants destroyed was barely half the level of 2013.[16] NPA surveyors seconded to SMAC cancelled 2.16km² through non-technical survey and released 1.36km² through full clearance. In the process Norway ended its funding for NPA’s Serbia operations at the end of 2013 and it stood down its teams.[17] Civil Defense conducted technical survey on an area of 421,368m² of Užice but cleared only 20,375m² and cancelled the remaining area.[18]

Russian operator Emercom also cleared 0.4km² of battle area destroying 1,286 items of UXO.[19]

Cluster munitions clearance in 2013[20]

Note: APM = anti-personnel mine; AVM = anti-vehicle mine; U-SUB = unexploded submunition; UXO = unexploded ordnance other than unexploded submunition

Recommendations

·         Serbia should take ownership of its small mine contamination problem and commit more national resources towards the annual cost of meeting its Article 5 obligations, including for clearance.