Ministry for Emergencies' specialists coming to demine Chechnya

This October, a group of experts from Russian Ministry for Emergencies (ME) will come to Chechnya with the mission to clear agrarian lands from mines. In total, the ME's sappers will have to demine about 90 hectares of arable land.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from a source in the office of Chechen government. "The problem of demining of the Republic's agricultural lands is of paramount importance for Chechnya. The Republic's leadership gives close attention to this issue," the source said.

For some time in 2006, ME's sappers had already worked in Chechnya and managed to demine over 60 hectares of land.

According to the UNICEF, after 1994 (that is, since the first war campaign in the Chechen Republic), a total of 714 peaceful residents were killed and 2379 more were wounded by explosions of shells and land mines.

According to the United Nations, the Republic's territory was keeping over half a million of unexploded mines, shells and other ammunition.

Presumably, over 24,000 hectares of Checnya's territory need clearing from mines, unexploded ammunition and other explosive objects. Mainly, they are agrarian land plots and large forests in the foothill and mountain parts of the Republic. In the opinion of some experts, the works of demining the territory will cost over 12 billion roubles.