MoE sappers to demine arable lands in Chechnya

In the near future, a united detachment of the Ministry of Emergencies (MoE) of Russia will come to demine agricultural lands in Chechnya. Earlier, sappers of the Ministry already worked in the Chechen Republic for a month in 2007 and managed to clean over 60 hectares of territory from land mines, shells and other ordnances.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed at the Republic's MoE that their Russian colleagues will have to demine 122 hectares of agricultural land towards the end of the year. The demining will be executed in two stages - in spring and autumn.

"In the next few days we wait for the arrival of the united detachment of the MoE of Russia, which will demine the lands belonging to state farms. Initially, they will work in the Grozny District, where they'll have to demine about 50 hectares of agricultural territory," said the source.

According to his story, MoE specialists have essential experience of such work. "Sappers were here already for several times, from 2002 to 2007, and neutralized more than four thousand explosive objects," the source has added. According to his department, the Republic needs demining of about 24,500 hectares of land, including 16,520 hectares of agricultural territories and 7336 hectares of woods."

The problem of neutralizing explosives in Chechnya continues to be pressing. "Mine incidents" take place here for the last 15 years.

Thus, yesterday, on April 2, in the mountainous Nozhay-Yurt District, a Chechen militiaman was wounded when trying to blow up an unidentified explosive. This March, as a result of explosions of land mines, fougasses and shells five person suffered, two of them, a local resident of 19 and a federal soldier, later died.

Only in February, the engineering-sapper subdivisions of the Internal Troops of Russian MIA liquidated in the territory of the Chechen Republic 360 various explosive objects and six self-made bombs. During this period, in the vicinity of Tsentaroy village, military sappers cleared about 17 hectares of land from explosives and ammunition. They liquidated 105 various explosive objects, including 25 land mines.