After 21 years, Kopaonik is finally clear of cluster bombs: 4 people died because of them

After 21 years, Kopaonik is finally clean of cluster bombs left over from the NATO bombing that took place in 1999.

On the southern slope of Pancic's Peak, collected cluster bombs were destroyed on August 8 this year. With this project the part of Kopaonik located in central Serbia became safe.

As for the part located in Kosovo (in the municipality of Leposavic), it is estimated that there are about 30 hectares of land left that need to be cleared of mines.

Other parts of Kopaonik, including the ski slopes, have long since been cleared. After cleaning up unexploded cluster munitions from this area, the danger to people and the environment has been removed, which will contribute to increasing the safety of all visitors to the Kopaonik National Park as the largest tourist winter sports center in Serbia, Infokop.net writes.

According to Boban Kurandic, a telecommunications flight control technician at Pancic, a number of explosive devices and detonators have been discovered so far.

After they were marked, these devices were destroyed. After that, only a small part of the minefield that remains in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija (Leposavic municipality) remained, while the part of Kopaonik that is in central Serbia (municipalities of Raska and Brus) is completely clear of mines.

The mine clearing of the "Kosovo" part will depend exclusively on the desire and will of KFOR, Kurandic concluded.

The project was funded by the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the US under the auspices of the ITF Foundation from Slovenia, while the contractor was the company "STOP MINES" from Pale, that has a team of the most experienced deminers in the Balkans.

During all these years, the aggravating circumstance in mine clearing is that Mt. Kopaonik is rich in different types of ore, so the metal detecting devices are of very limited use there.

During the NATO aggression, 17 containers of bombs were dropped on Kopaonik, each of them containing 350 cluster bombs, and so far, four people have lost their lives in cluster bomb explosions, while a number of others have been seriously injured.

Those who perished include:

In 1999, Mladen Stojanovix, a member of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior,

In 2012, Nebojsa Milic, senior sergeant first class of the 98th Air Force Brigade,

In 2012, Slavisa Markovic, sergeant first class of the 204th Air Force Brigade and

In 2012, Rade Alempijevic, a deminer from Sid.

In 2012, in memory of these brave people who lost their lives in order to allow safe movement in Kopaonik, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Serbia erected a monument at the top of Suvo Rudiste.

Each August, a memorial service is held at this location in memory of their courage and heroism.

(Telegraf.rs)