In Bosnia, Kosovo and other killing fields where a fragile peace is now in effect, the greatest threats to life and limb are unexploded land mines. There are an estimated 110 million mines scattered around the world in 64 countries, killing at least 10,000 people each year and maiming thousands more.
Among countries where land mines are deployed, Egypt leads the world with 23 million, followed by Iran with 16 million and Angola with 15 million.
Bosnia-Herzegovina, with its 3 million land mines, is ranked eighth among the top ten countries with unexploded mines.
Bosnia may have fewer mines than Afghanistan, Cambodia. China, and Iran, but it has the unfortunate distinction of having the largest concentration of mines buried in its soil than in any other country: An average of 152 land mines per square mile.
For NATO peacekeeping troops — or anybody else in Bosnia — land mines are an enormous problem. In the American-patrolled section of Bosnia, the US military has identified at least 1,500 “known” minefields, but sources acknowledge that this number “represents only 30 to 40 percent of the area’s documented mines.”
Throughout the former Yugoslavia, according to US military sources, there are over “4,000 identified minefields, and many thousand more.”
Keeping track of these deadly minefields in Bosnia is a formidable task. Officially, the American military’s mine-tracking intelligence center in Tuzla is called the “Mine Action Center,” however the soldiers who man this facility refer to it as “Mine Central”.
Housed in a drab building next to the US Army headquarters building for Task Force Eagle, Mine Central is a mass of computers, desktop terminals and enormous wall maps covered with grease-pencil notations. Task Force Eagle is the combined headquarters for all NATO-led forces in the US sector in Bosnia.
Mine Central is the first dedicated mine-tracking cell of its kind used by the Army operationally, and is responsible for compiling data on the location of all known minefields in Bosnia.
Allied soldiers, local civilians and indigenous militia forces-including Serbs, Croats and Bosnians, provide this information to personnel in NATO’s Bosnia Implementation Force (SFOR). The minefield data — once it is transferred to updated maps — enables forces to safely steer clear of mines in the Bosnia countryside.
Task Force Eagle forces also rely on the maps to verify the removal of mines by the warring factions as part of the Dayton Peace Accords.
Another computer-based technology helping NATO soldiers rid Bosnia of its landmine threat is, a computer database that tells personnel everything they need to know about the 36 most common types of land mines that litter the war-ravaged country.
The computer software, called “Bosniafile,” includes detailed photo-images of the mines and their fusing mechanisms, general information on size and weight, metal content, their production site, and ways to place and set them. The Pentagon has shipped 500 units of the “Bosniafile” to NATO military units and humanitarian organizations in Bosnia.
About 17 of the 36 landmines listed in the computer program, are anti-personnel weapons, with the rest designated as anti-tank weapons. More than two-thirds of Bosnia’s mines were manufactured by the former Yugoslav regime.
One thing that the “Bosniafile” database does not provide is information about how to find buried land mines.
Almost from the day that the first mine was deployed in a battlefield, the traditional mine-detection method required a soldier to gently probe the ground with a bayonet while crawling on one’s hands and knees. Today, military personnel from all four branches of US armed services receive training in this delicate art at the Navy-run Indian Head Naval School of Explosive Ordnance Disposal at Indian Head, Maryland.
Students at the school learn to identify and render harmless everything from hand grenades to nuclear weapons. Instructors and students at the school see clear linkages between their work and the dangers in the Balkans. However, in Bosnia advanced technology is now making the task of locating and detonating unexploded land mines safer. One of these high-tech mine-locating technologies is a cannibalized mine-rolling robot assembled specifically for the Bosnia mission by Army technicians at the US Army armored vehicle maintenance facility at Grafenwohr, Germany.
The robot is based on an obsolete M60A3 main battle tank, which has had its turret, removed and has been upgraded with 1,000-pound rollers and an electronic remote control system. Four fully equipped versions of the mine-clearing vehicle, called the Robotic Mine-Rolling Tank were shipped in February to Bosnia.
A few weeks after the Robotic Mine-Rolling Tank was deployed to Bosnia, it was joined by another remotely controlled mine-clearing vehicle: “Little Reggie.”
Little Reggie pounds the ground with heavy chains looking for anti-personnel mines. If it finds one, it will probably blow the chains away. No problem: The chains are easily replaced.
However, if Little Reggie finds an anti-tank mine, it will likely mean that that the - entire — Little Reggie vehicle will have to be replaced.
Unlike the Robotic Mine-Rolling Tank-which definitely has the appearance of a military vehicle-Little Reggie looks more like the Zamboni ice-clearing machine that smoothes the surface of a skating rink.
Little Reggie-known as a “miniflail” machine-is the latest in an arsenal of devices to detect and protect people from mines. Until now, most mine-clearing gadgets attach to vehicles such as tanks and heavily armored transports. But the Little Reggie miniflail is one of the first to use remote control, thereby keeping military personnel at a relatively safe distance.
Ideally, Little Reggie would be sent into a suspected minefield while its operator stands about 250 meters away. On a command from the operator, Little Reggie commences its noisy, earth-churning task, slowly cutting a meter-wide path across the soil.
