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5 JUNE 2000 DEMINING BEGINS IN ALBANIA AMAE is happy to notify that on June 5th, 2000 the official ceremony of the commencement of demining in Albania was held in Krume, the district of Has. Participating in the opening ceremony were the Deputy Minister of Defense, and Chairman of AMAC Ilir Bocka, the representative of the US State Department Mc Cauley, the representative of the Canadian Embassy Robert Pim, as well as representatives of OSCE in Kukes and NGO’s operating in the area. Representatives of the local government in the district, army and police took part too. The demining company RONCO has been contracted by the International Trust Fund and has been funded by the US administration. The company is going to work in Qafe Prush (Has) and Qafe Morine (Tropoja) which are two priority areas defined by AMAC and AMAE. The company has two demining teams and mine detective dogs that have been based in the town of Kruma. The Albanian party has provided safety to the company while working in Albania. The Albanian Mines Actions Executive is responsible to supervise the demining operations. The company will continue demining next year too. It is worth mentioning that local inhabitants welcomed the company hoping that the number of casualties will drop. One day before the company commenced demining two incidents occurred. Two men crossing the Albanian border got injured. One lost his leg and the other was injured on his face. So far AMAE has recorded 80 incidents that have resulted in 17 dead and 115 injured. |
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