(AP) A top U.N. official urged Ukraine on Monday to do more to combat the threat of World War II land mines still scattered unexploded around this country, a major World War II battleground.
Francis O’Donnell, the United Nations’ top official in Ukraine, said this ex-Soviet republic does not have a national program to deal with land mines which “still pose a great threat to the safety, health and lives of the population.”
The U.N envoy’s comments came on the eve of the United Nations’ first International Day for Mine Awareness.
There are no official reports on how many Ukrainians have died or been injured in mine accidents. But a survey by non-governmental organizations found that that some 80,000 people have become victims of mines.
No group is tasked with searching for the unexploded
mines, which are often found by residents, sometimes with fatal results, said Vitaliy Shved, from the nongovernmental Mine Action Coordinating Center.
There are also many ammunition depots which are overloaded and located too close to populated areas. Ukraine inherited over 6.5 million mines after the 1991 Soviet collapse, a significant number of which were destroyed in 2002 and 2003 as part of Ukraine’s efforts to eliminate land mines.
In 2004, some 92,000 tons of ammunition exploded at an ammunition depot in the southern Zaporizhya region, spraying debris and shells over several kilometers (miles) and destroying buildings in nearby villages.
Military authorities have repeatedly warned that the poorly maintained arsenals – some containing ammunition dating back to World War I – represent a serious public hazard.
