"SATURATION POINT IN BOSNIA -- People were rescued by an earth mover in a flooded street yesterday after the Ukrina River in the Bosnian town of Derventa burst its banks, northwest of the capital, Sarajevo. Authorities in Bosnia are evacuating thousands of people as heavy rains cause rivers to spill over, cutting off entire towns and villages. De-miners have been called in, in case the floods have moved land mines laid during the Bosnian War in the 1990s (Boston Globe June 24 2010)."
And imagine what it will be doing to the corpses in the mass graves, readers.
"Bosnia floods may have shifted bombs" by Associated Press | June 25, 2010
Bosnians in the town of Derventa evacuated Wednesday after heavy rains caused the river Ukrina to overflow. (Amel Emric/Associated Press)
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Floods in Bosnia displaced thousands this week as they washed away homes, crops, and bridges, and the torrents may have also swept loose a bigger concern: land mines planted during the Bosnian war.
I knew those things were never good fer nuthin'!!!
Since the end of the war in 1995, authorities have done their best to clear away the estimated 1 million land mines planted by the conflicting sides — or at least to mark contaminated areas.
Things are littering the planet because of wars.
But “each time the water pulls back, the geography is changed a bit and if there were any mines there, they end up somewhere else,’’ Antun Sinkovic, a quality control officer of Bosnia’s Mine Action Center, said yesterday.
At the end of the 1992-95 war, the United Nations was forced to estimate the number of mines strewn throughout the country because the conflicting parties — Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, or Bosnian Muslims — rarely kept records.
Under an international treaty, Bosnia was supposed to be mine-free by March 2009. Instead, Europe’s most mine-infested nation was given another decade to clear the estimated 220,000 remaining mines and other unexploded ordnance.
I wonder how many people -- including kids -- are getting limbs blown off or worse as they wait. Sure laid 'em down fast enough, didn't they?
Related: Lebanese policeman killed by unexploded Israeli bomblet
Yeah, well.... I never read that in the Globe.
I would have noted that.
Authorities in the Balkan country acknowledge that more than 963 square miles of territory is still riddled with mines.
So watch where you step, huh, Bosnians, Serbs, and anyone else walking around.
:-(
--more--"
I do not believe the rain has ended, although it appears the Globe coverage has.
In fact, if you look at the Brazil file you will see a lot of what I consider strange and unusual coverage bordering on insulting, but that's another matter.
