Key developments
since March 1999: In the conflict in Kosovo, Yugoslav forces laid at least
620 minefields and an estimated 50,000 mines, with the great majority
concentrated in the south near the Albanian and Macedonian borders. The KLA
also used mines in the conflict.
Background
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) consists
of two Republics, Serbia and Montenegro. The Republic of Serbia has two
autonomous provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina. Serbia has a mixed ethnic
population of which a small percentage is Albanian, while in Kosovo most of the
population is ethnic Albanian. The FRY has been involved in armed conflicts
almost continuously since the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic
Yugoslavia.
Early in 1999 the United Nations, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe and the European Union demanded that the FRY cease
repressive measures against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, withdraw its Army and
police units from Kosovo, and enable UN peacekeeping forces and international
civilian missions to enter and operate in the province. The Yugoslav
authorities responded to these demands by increasing repressive measures and
starting and accelerating the expulsion of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.
On 24 March 1999 NATO started an air campaign against FRY that lasted until 9
June 1999. During this time the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) conducted military
operations against Serbian forces in Kosovo. Under UN Resolution 1244, the
province was placed under the administrative control of the United Nations.
Throughout this most recent conflict, mines were used by both the Yugoslav army
and the KLA (See Landmine Monitor Report 2000—Kosovo).
Mine Ban Policy
The FR of Yugoslavia has not acceded to the Mine
Ban Treaty (MBT). On 11 January 2000 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained
that “in spite of the expressed interest of the FR of Yugoslavia to take
part in the preparatory stage for the Convention [MBT], it has not been given
the opportunity to do so from the very outset. Having joined the negotiations
at a later stage, it was not possible for the FR of Yugoslavia to make all
necessary preparations related to its possible accession to the Convention
before the Ottawa Conference, held in December
1997.”[1] The Foreign
Ministry also stated: “The NATO aggression against the FRY of Yugoslavia
in March-June 1999 has raised completely new questions about the use of inhumane
weapons, among which anti-personnel landmines represent but only one
category.... The population of Kosovo and Metohija was also a victim of
anti-personnel landmines planted by the terrorist organization of the so-called
KLA.... I wish to assure you that we stand ready to continue to participate
actively in the efforts towards the elimination of all types of weapons,
inhumane weapons in particular, and will make our concrete contribution to this
as soon as appropriate conditions have been created to this
effect.”[2]
Clearly the key reason Yugoslavia has not signed the MBT is that its military
still sees the weapon as useful. In 1996, Col. Dusan Stanizan, chief of
engineering on the Yugoslav Military’s General Staff said,
“Considering the fact that Yugoslav military doctrine is primarily
defensive, antipersonnel and antitank landmines have a very important place in
our defensive system.”[3]
In January 2000, he commented on their utility in the conflict in Kosovo when he
wrote that the Yugoslav Army’s mining of some routes from Albania into
Kosovo had prevented KLA soldiers from breaking
through.[4]
There has been no perceptible change in official attitudes toward AP mines,
despite continuing efforts to open dialogue on the issue by international and
local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including the Yugoslav Campaign to
Ban Landmines (YUCBL) and the Red Cross. With the aim of raising public
awareness about AP mines and involving more NGOs in the effort, the YUCBL
organized roundtables in Novi Sad, Podgorica and Pristine during 1999 and 2000,
to which the Army and Ministry of Defense were invited but refused to
attend.[5] On 21 February 2000
the YUCBL wrote to the General Staff and Ministry of Defense requesting
information for this report; there has been no reply. Efforts to arrange
interviews also failed, and open letters published in newspapers received no
response.[6]
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had signed and ratified the
Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981 and 1983 respectively. Because
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia asserts itself to be the legal successor of
the SFRY, it claims that the CCW has become part of Yugoslav national
legislation. The FRY has not ratified Amended Protocol II (Landmines).
Production, Transfer and Stockpile
The SFRY was one of the largest producers of AP
mines in the world, and a major exporter, primarily to the lesser developed
countries.[7] There have been
official and unofficial claims that the FRY has stopped producing and exporting
antipersonnel mines, but it is not possible for Landmine Monitor to affirm or
disprove these statements.[8]
It is likely that current stockpiles remain substantial.
Recent Use
The Yugoslav Army used mines extensively in
Kosovo. Maps and other information handed over to the UN Mine Action
Coordination Center by Yugoslav authorities in the second half of 1999 indicate
that 620 minefields were laid by Yugoslav forces. Although it has been reported
that some 500,000 mines were laid, the Kosovo Mine Action Coordination Center
(KMACC) has told Landmine Monitor that the actual number is likely to be around
50,000.[9] About eighty percent
of the landmines are concentrated near the southern border, while nuisance mines
are concentrated in the interior of the
province.[10] Yugoslav and KLA
use of mines in this province is described in more detail in the separate report
on Kosovo.
During 1998 and 1999 the Army also mined areas on the Croatian border,
especially bridges and their environs, in anticipation of a possible NATO
invasion from the west and north. During this period, minefields were laid near
the community of Sid, some of which have been cleared according to a military
source.[11] However, the
forested left bank of the Bosut River remains very dangerous for civilians.
Peasants collecting wood have activated mines with their tractors and now no
longer enter this area.[12]
Landmine Problem
In November 1999 the Serbian Ministry of the
Interior reported that there are one hundred locations on FRY territory
(excluding Kosovo) contaminated with
UXO.[13]
During the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, especially in the periods
of the Serbian-Croatian war (1991-1992, 1994-1995), mine barriers were deployed
on a sixty-six kilometer-long section of the Hungarian-Yugoslavian border,
starting at the junction of the river Dráva and the Danube. These
minefields were created on the Yugoslavian side of the border by Serbian
military corps (Yugoslav People's Army) and para-military troops (Krajinian Serb
Republic). The border section, located west of the current
Yugoslavia-Croatia-Hungary triple border as far as Drávaszabolcs, is full
of AP mines: PMR-2 (concrete Yugoslavian-made), PMR-2A (tripwire, metal,
Yugoslavian-made), OMSZ-2 (tripwire) and antitank mines: TMM-1 (metal,
Yugoslavian made), TMPR-6 (plastic, Yugoslavian
made).[14]Presumably in 1995, Serbian soldiers replaced detonators in the minefields
deployed from 1991. It is likely that mines were deployed in the order of ten
thousands to form contiguous mine
blockade.[15] There are no
detailed maps of those minefields.
There have also been successive minings and (partial or complete) deminings
of Yugoslavia’s western border with Croatia since approximately 1991,
about which there is fragmentary information. An unofficial source reported
that the left bank of the Danube has been mined and remined, especially around
bridges (for example, bridges near Batina village in Sombors community, near
Bogojevo village in Apatin community, and near Backa
Palanka).[16] When armed
conflict with Croatia ceased, the Yugoslav Army undertook clearance operations
in these areas, but an army officer involved in the original mining operations
said that many mines were placed in the sand around bridges, that would have
been shifted by the river.[17]
Zoran Begovic from the Montenegrin Ministry of Interior claims that after the
peace agreement between Yugoslavia and Croatia, the Yugoslav Army cleared all
minefields on the border with Croatia in the Debeli Brijeg
region.[18] However, in 1997
Yugoslavia refused a proposal to demilitarize the border with Croatia.
Near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Sjeverin village in Priboj
community from 1992 to 1998 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees built eight
houses for returning refugees. On 13 January 1998 the first returnees found AP
mines in the yards of their new homes, and the return of other refugees was
stopped.[19] The Prevlaka
peninsula in the FRY Republic of Montenegro was heavily mined but may have since
been cleared.
Mine Action
At the conclusion of NATO hostilities on 9 June
1999, the FRY also agreed to mark and clear its minefields from Kosovo, and UN
Resolution 1244 permitted Yugoslav personnel to return to Kosovo for this
purpose; it is not clear what progress has been made as Kosovars did not want
them in the province. The FRY also organized teams for clearance of UXO in most
communities where NATO dropped cluster bombs, but some areas remain
uncleared.[20]
In the SFRY, mine awareness was been regarded as an important element of
Yugoslav military doctrine, in the historical context of preparedness of the
population in the event of attack, and it had a well-developed program for the
general population. However according to one source, the FRY has never
organized mine awareness programs for the general
population.[21]
Landmine Casualties and Survivor Assistance
From the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina in the early 1990s, 1,250 mine victims were treated in the Institute
for Orthopedics and Prosthetics in
Belgrade.[22] There are many
patients from the wars in Croatia and Bosnia who need new prostheses, and the
Institute has had difficulty producing these. The Institute in 1999 and early
2000 received forty-five new patients. It has received no international support
for several years, and lacks the financial resources to import materials for
fabrication of prostheses, which was an expensive process even before the war.
One prosthesis costs approximately $2,000. There are a few Yugoslav companies
trying to produce the necessary materials and components, but these are not
fully tested. Some patients (mostly young people from Croatia and Bosnia)
subject to psychological and social problems have prolonged their stay at the
Institute.[23]
There is little information regarding casualties from mines following the
fighting in 1999. The impact on civilians has likely been greater from cluster
bombs.[24]
The FRY had well developed surgical and rehabilitation services for mine
victims, as well as reintegration services for
them.[25] In general, the
worsening economic situation in Yugoslavia means that disability laws and
programs for skills training continue to be poorly implemented if at all, and
most landmine survivors are left to the care of their families. Most mine
survivors receive disability pensions but all pensions in the FRY are very
low.
[1] Letter to the International Campaign to
Ban Landmines (ICBL) from Assistant Federal Minister Miroslav Milosevic,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belgrade, 11 January
2000. [2]
Ibid. [3] Col. Dusan Stanizan,
“Mines: Weapon Without Aim,” Novi glasnik (military magazine),
March/April 1996. [4] Dusan Stanizan,
“Bridges of Spite and Hope,” Vojska (military magazine), 20 January
2000, p. 6. [5] Eighteen panelists and
approximately seventy participants took part in these roundtables, in Novi Sad
(Vojvodina) on 29 September 1999, Podgorica (Montenegro) on 25 November 1999,
and Pristine (Kosovo) on 1 March 2000; it was planned to publish material from
the roundtables in June 2000. [6] Danas,
2 October 1999; Pobjeda, 26 November
1999. [7] For details of mines produced
and therefore likely to be in FRY stockpiles, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999,
pp. 827-829. [8] See Landmine Monitor
Report 1999, pp. 828-829. [9] Email from
Lt. Col. John Flanagan, Program Manager, KMACC, to Landmine Monitor (Mary
Wareham), 1 August 2000. [10] Human
Rights Watch interviews with UNMACC and KFOR officials, Pristina, 23-27 August
1999. [11] Interview with Petar
Skokandic, ex-officer of Yugoslav Army, member of Vojvodina Reform Democratic
Party, Novi Sad, 14 March 2000. [12]
Interview with Dusan Radosavljevic, member of Vojvodina Reform Democratic Party,
Sid, 15 March 2000. [13] Interview with
Col. Vladimir Aleksic, Ministry of the Interior, Politika, 27-30 November
1999. [14] Telephone interview with
Captain Posta, MH HTAZ, Budapest, 7 April 2000; L. K.,
"Botlózsinóros aknák magyar területen," Magyar
Hírlap, 23 January 1996, p. 1; Németh A. Endre – Erdei
Éva, "Új feladatok a déli határon," Magyar
Hírlap, 22 January 1996, p.
8. [15] E. É., "Akna magyar
területen," Magyar Hírlap, 10 April 1997, p.
21. [16] Interview with officer of
Yugoslav Army (who requested anonymity) who took part in mining bridges in Backa
Palanka during 1991 and 1999, Backa Palanka, 16 March
2000. [17]
Ibid. [18] Interview with Zoran Begovic
Minister of the Interior, Republic of Montenegro, Podgorica, 25 November 1999;
this was also stated by Mr. Begovic at the YUCBL roundtable in Podgorica, 25
November 1999. [19] Interview with Sefko
Alomerovic, President of Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Podgorica, 25
November 1999; this was also stated by Mr. Alomerovic at the YUCBL roundtable in
Podgorica, 25 November 1999. [20] Col.
Rajko Stevanovic, “Bombs Remain at One Hundred Locations,” Vojska,16
June 1999. [21] Interview with Dr.
Nikola Bogunovic, vice manager of Yugoslav Health Institution, Belgrade, 15
January 1999. [22] Interview with
Ljubisa Jovanovic, prosthetics ward chief, and chief technician Branko Savic,
Institute for Orthopedics and Prosthetics, Belgrade, 29 January 1999; Interview
with Ljubisa Jovanovic, Belgrade, 4 March 2000; this figure was previously
reported as 600 mine victims. They were from Krajina, which is part of Croatian
territory then under the control of the ethnic Serb majority. For details of
rehabilitation services in the FRY, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp.
834-836. [23] Statement by Ljubisa
Jovanovic, Institute for Orthopedics and Prosthetics, Belgrade, at the YUCBL
roundtable, Novi Sad, 29 September
1999. [24] “Report from Yugoslav
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Politika,18 May 1999, says that during the
NATO campaign in 1999, 200 people were reported killed, and more than 450
wounded from cluster bombs. [25] For
more information on survivor assistance, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp.
834-836.