The International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF) donated the Belgian and German-shepherds who are between 14 and 18 months old. The Director of the ITF, Goran Gacnik, said that the dogs have been accredited and will be used for demining tasks performed by the BiH Armed Forces.
Gacnik said that the ITF has participated in many support projects for demining teams and that they have provided full equipment for 300 BiH Armed Forces deminers, valued at 250,000 Euro.
“This is the way to ensure that BiH Armed Forces units will be even more active in demining activities”, Gacnik said to reporters in Sarajevo.
The commander of the Demining Battalion of the Tactical Support Brigade of BiH Armed Forces, Refik Fazlic, said that the battalion has four dogs teams and that today’s donation will provide the conditions for better demining activities in the next year.
“We plan to increase activities in 2010 by 100 percent compared to 2009”, said Fazlic, adding that “this year’s demining plan has been fulfilled by more than 120 percent”.
Amer Skenderagic, a dog trainer at the Regional Centre for Mine Detection Dogs for Southeast Europe, explained that dogs can examine 1,200 to 1,600 square meters per day, while people can only cover 85 square meters.
“They are very productive because they reduce the sites where people would waste time and money. Once they find the real minefields people join them in demining activities”, said Skenderagic. He emphasised that dogs are very reliable mine detectors and that there have been no major accidents involving them.
He said that the price of one dog is between 13,000 and 20,000 USD, but over a period of two months this amount is paid of.
Skenderagic said that dog training lasts between four and six months and that their working life is from seven to nine years. Their handlers are experienced and trained for dogs handling.
The Assistant Minister of Defence for Politics and Plans, Ahmet Hadziomerovic, expressed his gratitude for this donation, which will help increase the demining capacity by 50 percent and enable a more active demining process.
Hadziomerovic said that approximately two million square meters of land is cleared of landmines annually and he hopes that this number will increase this year. He said that there are many areas which are inaccessible to demining machines and that dogs will be of use in these areas.
Source: SRNA