DUSHANBE, December 14, Asia-Plus Over the past month, demining teams of the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) have destroyed 680 landmines detected in the Dashti Yazgulem area in Vanj District of Gorno Badakhshan, Asia-Plus has learned at the UNDP Dushanbe Office.

According to the source, demining operations in this area will continue approximately for one more week because bad weather conditions do not allow continuing work on detecting landmines and unexploded ordnances.  In other areas, the demining operations have already been suspended till the new season in 2006.  

This year, Tajik deminers from the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action have cleared more than 100,000 square meters of contaminated areas in the central region of the country and along the Tajik-Afghan border.  They have detected and destroyed more than 1,300 antipersonnel landmines and unexploded ordnances, according to the source.  

We will recall that Tajikistan signed the Convention on the Prohibition on the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on their Destruction (the Ottawa Convention) in 2000. All signatory states undertook to ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel land mines they possess, as soon as possible but no later than 10 years after signing the convention. In the case of Tajikistan, this means that the country should be mine-free by 2010.