NGO
“STOP Mines”
was funded on January 11th, 1999 in Pale. As the association of
citizen it was registrated at the Basic Court in Srpsko Sarajevo. USA
Government, through ITF, provided the initial means as well as logistic
support.
This
NGO was the result of the idea that originates from BiH demining
commission. The idea was to establish three national non-governmental
organizations whose main task would be mine action (this term was adopted
in whole world for all activities related to mine problems).
Mine
action includes three different
aspects:
Demining
Mine
awareness
Mine
victim assistance
As
subcontractor, NGO started the implementation of Mine awareness program in
RS on June 6th 1999. Two teams consisting of four persons (one
in Banja Luka and one in Pale) performed this program. During four months
the teams visited 46 municipalities, held 438 educational sessions with
26.904 listeners being present. It is worthy mentioning that 205 new
information related to the unregistrated mine fields and UXO were
collected at the education sessions. PIU office in Banja Luka as well as
the Canadian embassy in BiH gave the highest marks for the implementation
of the program. The Canadian embassy was donator of this program.
One
demining team, with six deminers being employed, started demining
activities on July 26th, 1999. Soon after that second demining
team with same structure got involved in demining activities.
The
financial means were provided by USA Government and implemented through
ITF from Ljubljana.
At this moment we have enough equipment and tools to equip five demining teams and eight EDD teams. The total number of engaged teams would depend on the scope of the project. Four teams of eight deminers have been engaged so far. All deminers are entitled to the rights and benefits determined by the BiH Law on demining and RS Law on service.
