PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- The danger from mines and unexploded bombs in Kosovo is far greater than previously thought, and casualties have soared to alarming levels, according to international aid agencies and mine-clearing organizations here.
By far the most dangerous are the volatile British- and U.S.-made cluster bombs, which have been found in almost every part of the province and have already caused some terrible accidents. Depleted uranium ammunition was also used in Kosovo, NATO has told those defusing the bombs and clearing the mines.As the death toll rises and aid agencies contemplate the difficult task ahead, recriminations are growing over NATO's use of the cluster bombs and what an aid worker said was NATO's reluctance to deal with "its own battle junk."
The mines were planted by the Yugoslav army and ethnic Albanians during their yearlong war before the NATO bombing.
In a report last week, the World Health Organization estimated that between June 13 and July 12, 130 to 170 people were injured or died in bomb and mine accidents, a rate of about 10 per 100,000 residents. This rate "is comparable to that previously experienced in other emergency situations such as Afghanistan and Cambodia," the Mine Action Coordination Center in Pristina said this week.
Those clearing mines are reaching similar conclusions. Former army engineers and explosives experts from a British group, the HALO Trust, are close to completing a two-month survey and have found a far greater presence of mines planted by Yugoslavs and Kosovars than they had expected. These experts have visited every village in Kosovo.
"The mine problem is much higher than the survey anticipated, far higher," said Phil Straw, a senior survey officer at HALO. "We came thinking there was a lot of media hype about mines and what was here. But I can say now that there are 500,000 mines in the ground."
Probably 400,000 mines are in uninhabited areas near the southern borders, he said, but thousands are also strewn across Kosovo.