site.bta190,000-Plus Non-demilitarized Landmines Still Stored in Bulgaria - Prime Minister

190,000-Plus Non-demilitarized Landmines
Still Stored in Bulgaria -
Prime Minister


Sofia, December 11 (BTA) - At present, 190,614 non-demilitarized
landmines are stored in Bulgaria, the Prosecutor General's
office wrote to the Prime Minister after a check, PM Boyko
Borissov said at a regular Cabinet meeting. The check was
prompted by a blast at an ammunition disposal facility near the
Village of Gorni Lom (Northwestern Bulgaria) on October 1, in
which 15 people were killed.

Borissov pointed out that by keeping the landmines in its
territory, Bulgaria violates the Convention on the Prohibition
of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of
Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. The PM said that
Bulgaria was the first to destroy its own stockpile of this type
of ammunition, but now has to dispose of a huge quantity of
Greek mines imported by a private company.

The head of government said that two options were considered at
a meeting of the line ministers with experts on Wednesday: to
start the demilitarization at the Kostenets plant, which will
take 20-30 months and moreover after the relevant preparations,
and to destroy the mines by controlled explosion at military
ranges, which is very expensive and technologically hazardous.

Interior Minister Vesselin Vouchkov noted that the company
concerned was supposed to demilitarize another 420,000 landmines
of the same source until the end of 2014, but after the
incident their import was halted.

Vouchkov commented that the greater problem is the
philosophically flawed process of safe disposal of ammunition: a
business that brings enormous profits but takes a heavy death
toll almost annually. "In my opinion, it is absolutely
inadmissible to keep demilitarizing ammunitions leaving
everything in the hands of private companies," he argued. The
Interior Minister believes that the State must monopolize the
safe disposal of surplus ammunition released by the Bulgarian
Army. On the other hand, the import of foreign ammunition for
demilitarization must be banned "so that we would not be turned
into an arms waste dump," he added.

Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev said it is impossible to place
these mines in Defence Ministry storage facilities because other
ammunition is kept there. He suggested that one of the
demilitarization companies take over the safe disposal,
specifying that this will require a lot of time and
preparations. Nenchev pointed out that the foreign ammunition
poses a very serious problem because the army bases are also
clogged with explosives purchased by private companies many
years ago and they do not remove them but the Defence Ministry
has to guard them.

The ministers were given until next Wednesday to suggest a
solution to end the practice of private companies' purchasing
foreign ammunition and then abandoning them without control.
PK/LG


/СН/