Recently at the Ukraine Southeast Europe summit, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković reiterated his country’s commitment to support Ukraine in its demining efforts in addition to a continuation of humanitarian, economic and military aid. This comes after the two nations forged a stronger long-term cooperation agreement last October centred upon demining, veteran care and the prosecution of war crimes.
By Harrison Budak
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as estimated two million mines have been laid, affecting around 20% of the country’s territory according to the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS). While the U.S. had provided and given the green light for Ukraine to use landmines, the Russian version of the weapon remains indiscriminate to whom it detonates underneath – owning to its Soviet origin.
Ukraine has used a “non-persistent” variant of landmine – meaning the weapon contains a self-destruct component, allowing it to be detonated at a precise time. Safety assurances aside, the mine may still pose a threat if it fails to detonate and can detonate earlier or later than intended.
Considerable military aid has been provided to Ukraine since the war began, however with the improbability of Russia’s retreat, solutions have been directed towards cleaning up the hazards the conflict continues to leave behind.
With Ukraine being the most heavily mined country in the world, civilian casualties number approximately 1500 and continue to rise, including tens of children that have been killed. It is suspected that civilian landmine victims are sizeably underreported owning in part to Russian control of territory.
The collaboration between Croatia and Ukraine stems from the former’s experience with the demining of civilian populated areas, support for survivors – including their reintegration into the workplace and larger international cooperation efforts towards the clearance of mines.
A strategic partner’s lived experience
Deming operations have yielded closer ties with Croatia, who’ve aligned themselves as firmly against the invasion from the beginning and have provided military and humanitarian support to Ukraine. Croatia’s familiarity with the dangers of landmines and the laborious task of demining stem from its independence war against Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Over the course of the four year conflict, an estimated 1.5 million mines were laid. Since the end of the war, 204 people have been killed by landmines and hundreds more have been injured.
After the conclusion of their war, Croatia’s government established the Croatian Mine Action Centre known as CROMAC. From 1997 to 1998 the suspected mine area in Croatia was reduced from 13,000km2 to 6,000km2 and all the way down to 1,700km2 by 2001. Despite government aspirations and an action plan from the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) to be mine free by 2010, Croatia still has around 50km2 left to demine and has earmarked March 1st of next year as its new deadline.
Delays can be partly attributed to challenging terrain, in particular the counties of Lika-Senj and Sisak-Moslavina who’s unforgiving mountains and dense forests slow down the clearance process. While on a family holiday a few years back we took the train from Zagreb to Split; the picturesque surroundings along the way cause you to briefly disregard the six hour journey.
Around halfway, in Lika-Senj county, it makes a stop in either Gospić, Gračac or Knin for ten minutes so passengers can stretch their legs or indulge in a cigarette or two. It was surreal to see signs warning about landmines in a field not more than 60 yards from the rail line. Though this fascination was probably more suited towards the innocent tourist brain, locals have grown accustom through increased signage and an interactive map that transmits an alert if they approach a mined area.
Insert photo “Croatia mine sign.jpg” Caption: A sign warning people not to approach the land marked for a risk of land mines. Credit: Wikipedia – Pudelek (Marcin Szala) – Own work
Kyiv is turning to Zagreb not only for its experience in the clearing of minefields, but for its production of specialized demining machinery, a scarcely available commodity. Croatia’s DOK-ING (short for Documentation and Engineering) has firmly grasped the global market for robotic demining equipment – constituting eighty percent of total machines. They opened an office in Ukraine last year, and users of their technology include militaries from the U.S., Italy, Australia, Greece and South Korea among others, as well as government agencies and NGOs.
Increased funding is critical
The GICHD report on the 1998-2001 demining done by CROMAC found that international cooperation would be critical to Croatia achieving its future targets. Moreover, it highlighted how long-term partnerships were worthwhile including the costly process of demining road infrastructure, that was financed through a World Bank loan or a psychosocial therapy workshop for child mine victims funded by Canada’s government.
Partners tended to provide significant financial support with Switzerland making commendable contributions including demining protected forest area and providing workshops for land mine victims and their family. Ranko Britvić, head of the project’s implementation unit, said of the importance of making survivors feel that they can be a useful part of society: “to start a business, to do something [of a higher quality] and feel that the community cares about them.”
Handicap International, in a 2014 policy paper on victim assistance (VA), found that it can be used as a ‘larger mechanism of addressing disability issues in mine/ERW affected nations.’ Ukrainian Law on mine action stipulates that victims receive a one-time compensation payment in addition to an ‘annual rehabilitation allowance.’ They are also entitled to ‘free psychological and medical therapy along with transport and accommodation costs.’
Last month, the UNDP displayed their Victim Assistance Model – ‘a multi-sectoral framework for VA which combines medical aid, psychosocial care, legal aid, rehabilitation and socio-economic inclusion’ to practitioners involved in Ukraine. The model, seeks to identify gaps such as the ‘limitations many communities face in providing high quality rehabilitation and social and psychosocial services.’ It further produces impact by strengthening community capacities in regard to inclusive education, increased access to psychological support through civil society partnerships and bolstering local social agencies so that they can provide comprehensive care.
Paul Heslop, UNMAS’ advisor in Ukraine gave a briefing this month where he outlined how substantial increases in funds for demining will be needed in addition to the $1 billion already given. He went on to state the importance of adopting an ‘efficiency-curve’ – utilizing technologies such as satellite imagery and visual drone remote assessment to offset what has typically been a costly undertaking.
Speaking to the cost of this operation, he indicated that regardless of methodology, significant funds will need to be allocated: “It [the scale of mine contaminated land] is so big that it will be billions … everything we can do [to make the process more efficient] will save Ukraine from having to borrow funds unnecessarily [when the grant money stops].”
Ongoing challenges require past reflection
Croatia’s mine clearance process has been disadvantaged by virtue of being a small nation receiving minimal media coverage or financial aid/grants in comparison to Ukraine. Nevertheless, disconnect between institutions that support mine victims, unharmonized legislation and waiting for the generous hand of a foreign government or NGO to intervene have led to Croatian war survivors being repeatedly ignored.
Demining efficiency in Ukraine has been improving, though larger geopolitical circumstances may affect future efforts. Amidst uncertainty on how both the EU and the U.S. plan to coax Russia back to the negotiating table, mines continue to pose an incredible danger to the civilian population.
Training bomb disposal experts can be a lengthy process despite Ukraine nearly tripling their personnel since the invasion began. While training programs run by non-profits such as Mriya Aid can be as short as five weeks, a more advanced version with local specialization as organized by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) took two-and-a-half months.
Future demining needs to embrace technologies that streamline the process, so donations are not wasted clearing land that never contained mines in the first place. To achieve this, international partnerships must be strengthened, donors cultivated, and practitioners provided the systems to execute their know-how.
VA, while greatly improved over the years in Croatia, has not adequately reached a suitable level to constitute sufficient care. The lack of disabled access within public spaces, victims support (including to their extended family) and the inability to incorporate land mine survivors into the overall process needs to be corrected.
A study published in 2011 – 20 years after the beginning of Croatia’s conflict, by the Association for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities (UPIM) in collaboration with the Karlovac County Mine Victims Association and the Center for Peace Studies looked into quality of life for mine victims and their assessment of state action to that point. Survivors of landmine/ERW accidents said one hurdle to their reintegration was employment amid larger socio-economic problems in Croatia. This was compounded by the inadequate preparation of workplaces to properly facilitate reintegration and insufficient information campaigns to raise awareness for local populations.
This prior experience should be utilized by Ukraine as a guide on the importance of rapidly and successfully reintegrating those impacted by mines into society and reinforcing VA to mean more than hollow words. This may be achieved through the adoption of the UNDP’s Victim Assistance Model and fulfillment of the assistance allocated to victims in Article 10 of Ukrainian Law on mine action.
A rights-based approach ensures equitable support for landmine victims in their day-to-day needs and provides them tools so that they may continue to take an active role in their communities.
Harrison Budak is a freelancer specializing in impact investing, exploring the legacies of corruption within a communist context and navigating the transition of small states into the EU. He’s currently completing a bachelor’s in political science at McMaster University in Canada.