Mine action

Mine Action Office Macedonia
as at 15:00 January 14st, 2002

Agenda:

UNMAO update
Mine Awareness update
AOB
 

The proposal for bringing in additional international demining teams, submitted to Ms. Dosta Dimovska has not been reviewed yet. Mr. Usprcov, initially responsible for this matter, is now no longer dealing with these issues. Instead, Mr. Anevski, currently working for the Ministry of Defence, took over recently. The Mine Action Officer in Skopje supplied him with all the necessary documentation regarding these issues.

The Mine Action Officer informed that the Government identified Mr. Ljupco Zajkovski as a candidate to attend the Mine Action Senior Management course in Slovenia starting from the 20^th of January until the 1^st of March. As the Government identified the future Mine Action Officer, originally member of the Civil Protection, it is hoped that the programme would move forward more rapidly.

With respect to the map trace of the mined areas, the latest is dated 20 November. The new equipment for the Mine Action Office is due to arrive by the end of this month, and the new map trace should be ready by early February.

The ITF are providing four clearance teams for this year that would work according to the priority areas supllied by the Government. Several agencies were identified as interested in clearance operations: CARE, Handicap International, Intersos and the Danish Refugee Council. With respect to funding, all agencies are self-sustaining.

However, to proceed with these plans, a written request from the Government is still expected.

ITF will hold the training course for the nationals in early spring. So far the number of the participants is 18. The training will take place both in Skopje and Slovenia.

ICRC informed that during the month of December they have prepared 70 presentations for people in affected villages and for IDPs through their network of instructors and people trained from the Macedonian Red Cross. ICRC has also been supporting the villages of Poroj, Djermo, Djepciste with new materials. They were also distributing calendars as part of their mine awareness campaign.

ICRC is in a phase of preparing a new local media campaign with new technical design aimed at the resident population and the IDPs.
 

The next Mine Action co-ordination meeting will be held at 15:00h, on the 28^th of January 2002, at the UNMAO premises. For further details please contact Mr. Sandy Powell, Mine Action Officer; Tel 02 467 866; 070 252 157.

Previous reports

November 19, 2001