Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) destroyed 1,691 tons of ammunition and mine explosives in 2017, BiH Ministry of Defense said at the 16thSession of the Strategic Committee for armaments, ammunition and mine explosives (NMiMES) on Monday.
During the session, members presented the results of the implementation of activities related to the process of destruction of ammunition and mine explosives surpluses for the period 2017 – 2018, and future activities, BiH Ministry of Defense official press release stated.
The current number of surpluses of mines, various ammunition and unexploded ordnance amounts to some 8,300 tons, and 40, 000 pieces of weapons, BiH Armed Forces Deputy Chief for Resources, Gojko Knezevic, said at the session.
According to analysis, 787,18 tons of ammunition and mine explosives was destroyed from Jan.1 until May 31, 2018.
In 2018, NMiMES plans to destroy 3,000 tonnes of mines, various ammunition and unexploded ordnance, out of which 1,000 through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and 2,000 tonnes in BiH local destruction sites.
As one of the priority tasks in the forthcoming period is the increase in the level of security of personnel working on weapons’ destruction, as well as of the local communities living near the warehouses.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the BiH Ministry of Defense, BiH Armed Forces, European Union (EU) representatives in BiH, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to BiH, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and NATO Headquarters Sarajevo.
