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In the last three years, ever since the Dayton peace had reigned supreme in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the landmines have on average killed a person every third day and wounded one every day.
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The facts are horrifying: a million odd mines are still buried under the earth of this unfortunate and hardly existing country by the name of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to known facts, 2,300 square kilometers, out of the country's 53,000-square-kilometre territory, are contaminated with landmines. This is the equivalent of a square with a 48-kilometre long sides densely covered with mines. But everyday life is much more difficult with these insidious killing devices buried all over the country, and especially dense in the areas where the division lines between what the West cynically called "warring factions" took place. The aftermath is even more horrifying: from the time the Dayton peace agreement was signed to March 1, 1999 - when the Ottawa convention on banning the antipersonnel landmines was put in effect - 290 people were killed and 950 wounded by landmines: among them only an insignificant number of those who were not civilians.
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The prosthetic devices are not for free and even the cheapest prosthetists such as Bozo Surlan from Banja Luka - called "the best in the Balkans" - charge about 1,500 German marks for the under-knee prosthesis. For some Bosnians that could easily mean up to ten monthly salaries.
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| When the mine is detected, it is brought to a safe place where it is blown up.
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The Medical Humanitarian Society in Sarajevo where young mine victims gather daily for physical treatment. Most are around 17 years old and were injured in peace time, when they no longer needed to hide out in the cellars.
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| The neighbourhood of The Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo is still contaminated with landmines and other explosive devices.
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Alma Suljevic, an artist and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo. During the war she volountarily joined the BiH army. Her latest video project shows her clearing the mines in a minefield...
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| Comercial deminers are moving in - they claim they do the same job as non-governmental organisations faster and cheaper.
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Compared to not more than 30 square meters of the ground that can be checked in one working day by a human being, the dogs with their sniffed-up 500 to 1,000 square meters are far more efficient.
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| Mirko Papac, 70 year old shepherd from the Hercegovina karst. When 18 of his sheep were killed in a single mine explosion he decided to take matters into his own hands. Three years have passed since and he's discovered more than two hundred mines.
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A deminer must pierce the soil at a 15-degree angle around two thousand times to clear a single square meter.
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| In the village of Pijesci, ethnically cleansed by the Croats, the Muslims take their first step onto their fields. When they came back three years ago, the field was not yet clear of mines.
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