Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline: 1 March 2019
(Unclear whether on track to meet deadline)

Non-signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Recommendation for action

• The Republic of Serbia should identify funding, including from national sources, to identify the remaining areas containing cluster munition remnants and then complete clearance as soon as possible.

Contamination

Serbia is contaminated with antipersonnel mines, cluster munition remnants, and other unexploded ordnance. Contamination also exists within Kosovo (see separate profile on Kosovo). 

Mine contamination 

Serbia has 2.85km² of area suspected to contain antipersonnel mines across 19 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs). Only one of Serbia’s 150 municipalities still contains SHAs, as set out in the table below. Survey and clearance in 2014 resulted in the municipality of Preševo being declared cleared of mines, leaving Bujanovac as the sole municipality with SHAs.[1]

Mine contamination by municipality as of end 2014[2]

Note: *The villages of Breznica, Demirska Mahala, and Veliki Trnovac were not listed as contaminated in Serbia’s 2013 Article 5 deadline extension request as they were only identified as contaminated during survey in 2014.[3] 

Previously, for 2013, Serbia had reported 1.2km2 of confirmed hazardous area (CHA) containing mines and 2km2 of SHA. However, the Serbian Mine Action Centre (SMAC) subsequently decided to re-categorize all pre-existing CHAs as SHAs, following previous survey results that revealed a small number of mines found over a relatively large area. In line with more efficient land release methodology, which emphasizes the need for evidence to confirm areas as hazardous, SMAC intends to use an integrated approach using survey, mine detection dogs, and other assets to cancel suspected areas not found to be contaminated, and thereby reduce to a minimum the area confirmed as mined, which will be subject to physical clearance.[4] 

Mine contamination in Serbia can historically be divided into two phases. First, as a legacy of the armed conflicts associated with the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Second, as a result of emplacement of mines in 2000–2001 in the municipalities of Bujanovac and Preševo by the paramilitary group, the Liberation Army of Preševo, Bujanovac, and Medvedja (OVPBM). The remaining contamination in Serbia is a result of this later phase. Contamination was suspected in late 2009, with formal survey of SHAs starting in 2010.[5]

Bujanovac is one of Serbia’s least developed municipalities. The affected areas are mainly mountainous, close to populated areas.[6] Mined areas impede access to local roads, grazing and breeding land for cattle, tobacco growing, mushroom picking, and other forest products. Mines also pose an increased risk of fire. In addition, potential construction projects for solar energy plants, primary tobacco processing facilities, and other infrastructure are hindered by mined areas.[7] 

Cluster munition contamination

Serbia is contaminated with cluster munition remnants. Serbia has less than 0.5km2 of area confirmed to contain cluster munition remnants and a further 5.3km2 suspected to contain cluster munition remnants. Serbia is also contaminated by other unexploded ordinance (UXO) and antipersonnel mines. Seven of the 150 municipalities in Serbia still contain areas confirmed or suspected to contain cluster munition remnants (see table below).

Cluster munition contamination by municipality as of end 2014[8]

Cluster munition contamination results from NATO air strikes in 1999. According to Serbia, NATO cluster munitions struck 16 municipalities: Brus, Bujanovac, Čačak, Gadžin Han, Knić, Kraljevo, Kuršumlija, Leposavić, Niš city-Crveni Krst, Niš city-Medijana, Preševo, Raška, Sjenica, Sopot, Stara Pazova, and Vladimirci.[9] In late 2014, a suspected area was newly identified in Tutin, a municipality not previously reported to be contaminated by cluster munition remnants.[10] 

Remaining contamination is mostly in less developed regions of Serbia, typically on mountains and in woods. These areas are of importance to local communities for access to forest products, cultivation, cattle grazing, and mushroom picking. Remnants are also found in debris of infrastructure, impeding reconstruction as well as the development of tourism.[11] 

Program Management

Serbia does not have an interministerial national mine action authority. SMAC was established on 7 March 2002. A 2004 law made it responsible for the coordination of demining, collection and management of mine action information (including casualty data), and survey of suspected hazardous areas. 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.[12]

Operators

SMAC does not carry out clearance or employ deminers but does conduct survey of areas suspected to contain mines, cluster munition remnants, or other explosive remnants of war (ERW).

Clearance is conducted by commercial companies and NGOs, which are selected through public tender procedures executed by ITF Enhancing Human Security.[13] Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) personnel seconded to SMAC have conducted all survey in Serbia.[14] In 2014, NPA deployed a single two-strong non-technical survey team.[15] The Mine Detection Dog Centre (MDDC) in Sarajevo deployed two demining teams in 2014, comprised of a total of 24 deminers, to conduct manual clearance.[16]

Standards

According to SMAC, survey and clearance operations in Serbia are conducted in accordance with the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS). National mine action standards were said to be in the final phase of development as of March 2015.[17] SMAC and NPA were jointly developing separate standing operating procedures (SOPs) for land release of both mined and cluster munition-contaminated areas.[18]

Land Release (Mines)

Total mined area released by clearance in 2014 was 0.27km2, following no clearance in 2013. A further 0.5km2 was cancelled in 2014 by non-technical survey.[19]

Survey in 2014 (mines)

Non-technical survey in 2014, conducted by SMAC and supported by NPA, resulted in seven SMAs being confirmed as mined, totaling a little over 1km2. Four SHAs were cancelled in 2014, totaling 0.5km2. No technical survey was conducted in 2014.

Survey in 2014[20]

Note: SMAs = suspected mined areas.

Survey and clearance operations in 2014 revealed that the municipality of Preševo is free of mine contamination.[21]

Clearance in 2014 (mines)

In 2014, two SHAs were released by clearance in Cerevajka village, Preševo municipality, totaling 270,616m2 of land. During clearance operations, seven items of UXO were destroyed, but no mines.[22] This compares with 2013 when no mine clearance was conducted.

According to Serbia, clearance productivity per deminer is up to 100m2 a day, depending on the mine situation, terrain configuration, land characteristics, and vegetation; and one pair of mine detection dogs can demine up to 1,500m2 a day.[23]

In response to severe flooding in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia in May 2014, SMAC established a regional expert team, together with the mine action centers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The regional team exchanged data on locations of mine contamination, types of mines, and possible directions of the movement of mines due to flooding. The SMAC also collaborated on other cross-border projects.[24] SMAC also conducted a joint survey in Serbia with expert teams from the Ministry of Interior’s Department for Emergency Situations, and the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Centre to assess the potential flooding-related risk.[25]

Progress in 2015 (mines)

In 2015, SMAC was planning to survey 1.2km2 of SHA in the municipality of Bujanovac, with technical survey conducted by MDDC.[26] NPA was planning to continue non-technical survey in 2015 of areas contaminated with mines, cluster munition remnants, and other ERW, including survey in flooded areas.[27] 

Land Release (Cluster Munition Remnants)

Total contaminated area released by clearance in 2014 was almost 0.29km2, compared with more than 2.4km2 in 2013. A further 0.81km2 was cancelled in 2014 by non-technical survey.[28]

As a result of survey and clearance in 2014, Gadžin Han and Knić municipalities were declared clear of cluster munition remnants.[29]

Survey in 2014 (cluster munition remnants)

Non-technical survey in 2014 was conducted by an NPA survey team seconded to SMAC, resulting in the confirmation as contaminated of five areas suspected to contain cluster munition remnants, totaling 0.47km2. In addition, parts of six other suspected areas were cancelled in 2014, totaling 0.81km2. No technical survey was conducted in 2014.[30]

Clearance in 2014 (cluster munition remnants)

The quantity of land cleared in 2014 marks an 88% decrease compared to 2013.[31] Only three operators conducted clearance in 2014, compared to eight the previous year. Two Croatian companies, DOK-ING Razminiranje and PIPER, engaged two demining teams each, employing a total of 24 deminers for each company. EMERCOM Demining, a Russian state agency, engaged one demining team, employing six deminers.[32] 

Clearance of cluster munition-contaminated area in 2014[33]

Progress in 2015 (cluster munition remnants)

In March 2015, NPA started technical survey of 1.35km² of suspected area in four communities in Sjenica and Stara Pazova municipalities.[34]

Treaty Compliance 

Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the five-year extension granted by States Parties 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. It is not clear whether Serbia is on track to meet this deadline.

As late as May 2012, Serbia held out hope of meeting its original Article 5 deadline,[35] but in March 2013 it applied for a five-year extension. In granting the request, the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties noted that “implementation could proceed much faster if Serbia was able to cover part of demining costs and thereby become more attractive for external funding.” States Parties further noted that the plan presented by Serbia was “workable, but it lacks ambition, particularly given the small amount of mined area in question.”[36]

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

In the last five years, Serbia has cleared less than half a square kilometer of suspected mined area (see table below).

Mine clearance in 2010–2014

Serbia is falling behind its planned clearance timeline set out in its 2013 Article 5 deadline extension request, which envisaged clearance of just under 0.49km² in 2013, and just over 0.57km² in 2014.[37] In its original extension request Serbia also predicted it would complete survey by the end of 2015, which it is not on target to achieve. 

In 2015, however, Serbia reported it had adjusted its extension request plan, and now predicts that of the remaining 2.85km2 of SMA, some 1.2km2 would be surveyed in 2015 and the remaining 1.65km2 in 2016. Of this, Serbia expects to clear a total of 1.6km2, of which it planned to clear 0.4km2 in 2015, 0.6km2 in 2016, and 0.6km2 in 2017.[38] Based on this revised plan, Serbia expects to complete survey and clearance of mine-contaminated land in 2017, ahead of its 2019 deadline.[39] 

According to SMAC, clearance is contingent on funding. If funds are secured, Serbia predicts that mine clearance could be completed in two years.[40] SMAC stated that the reason no clearance took place in 2013 was because Serbia had to direct limited donor funds to clearing cluster munition remnants and other UXO. Clearance in 2014 was possible due to securing funding from the United States through the ITF.[41]

Convention on cluster munitions Article 4 compliance 

Serbia is not a party or signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions and therefore does not have a specific clearance deadline under Article 4.

In 2010–2013, significant progress was made in clearing cluster munition-contaminated areas. In 2014, however, progress stalled, and the less than 0.29km2 cleared during the year marks the lowest annual figure for cluster munition clearance in the last five years. According to SMAC, lack of funds resulted in a decrease in area cleared.[42]

Clearance in 2010–2014 (km²)

According to SMAC, clearance progress is contingent on funding. If adequate funds for implementation of survey and clearance projects are secured, Serbia predicts that clearance of cluster munition remnants could be finished in three years.[43]