DUSHANBE
, May 16, Asia-Plus – the Tajik Mine Action Cell (TMAC) intends to purchase a machine for mechanical demining from
Japan
, Parviz Mavlonqulov, the TMAC deputy head said.
According to him, negotiations on this subject are ongoing. Besides, training of 12 demining dogs in the Afghan capital of
Kabul
will be completed in August this year.
Parviz Mavlonqulov says that the TAMC deminers discovered and defused 20 antipersonnel mines in the Panj district (Khatlon) and more than 30 anti-personnel landmines in the Vanj district (Gorno Badakhshan) over the past month alone. The area spanning more than 4,000 square meters has been demined to date.
Efforts to clear landmines along
Tajikistan
’s 1,344 km-long border with
Afghanistan
, one of the highest mine-risk areas in the republic were launched on April 11 this year.
Tajikistan
has the largest landmines problem in Central Asian, with more than 25,000 sq km of land to be cleared of mines. Most of the mines in
Tajikistan
are a legacy of the republic”s disastrous civil war in the Nineties of last century (1992-1997), but they can also be found along its borders with neighboring
Afghanistan
and
Uzbekistan
.
Russian border troops, who were stationed in the country in the 1990s, reportedly laid minefields on the border with
Afghanistan
to stave off incursions by militants.
