it's Christmas Eve, so I thought I'd tell you about landmines in Bosnia...
I decided to write about landmines in Bosnia after I read an article about it. You see, I went to Bosnia this summer and was pleasantly surprised by the charm it possessed and how picturesque Sarajevo was. We won’t get into the details of the war here but while on a tour of Sarajevo the tour guide pointed out two mountains and said that we were not allowed to go there because they are still filled with landmines. Like anyone else, Laverne and I thought that the authorities were working on clearing those mountains up.
They are not. Bosnia has run out of money to clear the countryside from landmines and other explosives left for the war. Bosnia in fact still has 220,000 landmines literally lying around. It is the only European country that is riddled with so many landmines.
You may ask why I feel so strongly about this. Firstly, Cyprus is also filled with landmines along the buffer zone and still posses a danger to us. Secondly, landmines are not built to kill, they are built to maim. So they actually do more harm and cause more pain than a bullet. Thirdly, kids, hikers, farmers are now exposed to landmines in the countryside of Bosnia. According to the International Herald Tribune, ‘since the war ended, mines have inured 1,665 people, including 487 fatalities.’ The statitstics get worse and I’m not going to post them here but you get the gist. The above facts are terrible, people still dying from landmines? And now Bosnia has run out of money to rid the country of landmines? Let’s not mention that ethnic tensions have flared up again to make matters worse.
Where are international donations to clean the country of the landmines? So the war has ended and now everything is okay? It doesn’t seem to be. By having landmines strewn around Bosnia the war continues. Something has to be done – but the Balkan nations are too busy suing one another to do anything about it ans talk about what atrocities committed rather than helping the country (or each other develop).
I thought I’d add the link to the Halo Trust – a charity that specialises in the removal of debris of war.
As of 1997, there were 16,000 landmines in Cyprus. Right now I don’t know where the number stands.
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