Demining of Chechnya to be over in 2015, local MfE asserts

The large-scale clearing of the Chechen Republic of mines, shells and other explosive devices, initiated by military sappers, will take three years, according to the Republic's Ministry for Emergencies (MfE).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the large-scale demining campaign was launched by sapper units of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) in late March. Demining is conducted in parallel in three districts of the republic - the Kurchaloy (near the village of Mairtup), Urus-Martan (near the village of Alkhan-Yurt) and Shali (agricultural land around the village of Chiri-Yurt) Districts.

"Within five years - from 2005 to 2010 - only 295 hectares of land were cleared in the republic. If this rate of demining was continued, it would take at least 100 years to clear the territory of our republic of mines, unexploded ordnance and other explosives. The involvement of military sappers in this work will allow coping with it in the next three years to complete it as early as 2015," said a source from the Chechen MfE.

According to the data of the local MfE, in the last 15 years, more than 3000 local residents have suffered from mines and other explosive devices in Chechnya, including about 800 children and 600 women. Of them, about 700 persons were lost.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Chechnya, it is necessary to demine a total of 5352.5 hectares of agrarian land and 8336 hectares of forests. According to the MfE, Chechnya needs the so-called continuous demining; and the total area to be cleaned of explosives makes over 24,000 hectares.

In total, from the start of the large-scale works, the military sappers have cleared more than 20 hectares of land, finding and neutralizing over 150 explosive objects.

In May, a large-scale demining will start in two other districts of Chechnya - the Grozny and Shelkovskaya Districts.