Minesweepers from Serbia and Italy to search for NATO mines by using Italian equipment worth about 600,000 EUR

Military delegations of the continental armies of Serbia and Italy took part on Wednesday (November 25, 2009) in the final phase of the training of 20 members of the Army of Serbia and the Ministry of Defense at the military airport in Niš, who will be clearing the mines on the territory of Serbia by using the state-of-the-arts equipment.

In the final phase of the training, with the help of Italian instructors, the characteristics of the new equipment that Italy donated to the Ministry of Defense of Serbia were demonstrated. The value of the equipment is about 600,000 EUR, and it was delivered to the military airport in Niš in October 2009.

The attendants of the humanitarian mine detection and removal course have been visited by the Ambassador of Italy to Belgrade, Armando Varichia, and Milan Popadić, the Chief of the Administration for Emergency Situations within the Ministry of Defense of Serbia.

The commander of the Continental Army of Serbia, lieutenant-general Ljubiša Diković, and the executive of the General Staff of the Continental Army of Italy, lieutenant-general Giuseppe Valotta, estimated that the cooperation had been successful and that they would be working on its further improvement during the next year. The focus will then be placed on the training of special forces and the cooperation between civilian protection and army.

The Chief of the Administration for Emergency Situations within the Ministry of Defense of Serbia, Milan Popadić, said that Niš would be the first urban area where the new equipment would be used for detection and removal of unexploded mines from the wars waged in the previous century.

- We will be first sweeping the mines on the territory around the military part of the airport in Niš, and we will then move to all other potentially dangerous areas - Popadić pointed out.