"Large amount" of unexploded ordnance in Serbia's big rivers

"Large amount" of unexploded ordnance in Serbia's big rivers

BELGRADE -- A large number of unexploded missiles and bombs have been lying in Sava and Danube rivers since NATO's 1999 aggression against Yugoslavia (SRJ).

Surveys of other waterways suspected of pollution from various types of explosives are under way, head of Serbia's Mine Action Center Branislav Jovanovic has told Tanjug.

Unexploded missiles and bombs are located near the bridges Bogojevo-Erdut and Backa Palanka-Ilok, upstream from the bridge Sloboda in Novi Sad, downstream from the railway bridge in Novi Sad, near the port in Pancevo, between Ritopek and Ivanovo, near the bridge Smederevo-Kovin, close to the Prahovo port in Sabac and in two places in Obrenovac, close to the power station there and near the factory Baric, Jovanovic explained.

"A survey of the other locations along Serbia's waterways that are suspected of pollution with various types of unexploded ordnance is under way to establish the preliminary risk assessment," he noted.

There is suspicion that the Sava holds unexploded mines near the village of Jemen back from the 1991-1995 conflict, he remarked.

This is not just the unexploded ordnance left after the NATO bombing campaign, but also World War Two, he pointed out.

German war ships with mines and other ordnance were sunk in the Djerdap Gorge, near Prahovo, on Serbian territory in 1944, he stated.

"A survey was conducted in this location in 2006 and determined that 23 ships were sunk here, and that 4 of them contain anti-ship mines while others carried other unexploded ordnance," he said, adding that the sunken German fleet was making it harder to navigate that part of the Danube and posed a constant threat to the...