International Mine Action Day marked at OSCE-supported centre in Tajikistan

RUDAKI, Tajikistan, 4 April 2008 - A training centre for mine detecting dogs, supported by the OSCE, hosted events today dedicated to the International Mine Action Day. They included a demonstration of de-mining works in Tajikistan, with the actual destruction of anti-personnel mines, an exhibition and a screening of a documentary film.

"Large areas within Tajikistan are contaminated by anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance, a legacy of the civil war. Landmines deprive rural people of usable natural resources, hinder the development of large swathes of the country and contribute to regional insecurity. It is vitally important to eliminate the threat that landmines pose," said Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Dushanbe.

OSCE works in close co-operation with the Government of Tajikistan and international partners, to solve the issue of landmines and abandoned ordnance remaining on the Tajik-Afghan border and planted in various regions of Tajikistan during the civil war.

Since 2004, the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action, which is funded by the OSCE, has cleared over one million square metres of land, given the all-clear to 18 million square metres of land suspected of mine activity, removed 4,500 mines and destroyed over 2,500 pieces of unexploded ordnance and cluster munitions.