RUSSIAN RESCUE TEAM STARTS DEMINING KOSOVO








MOSCOW, March 12, 2001. /Yuri Yumashev, RIA Novosti Correspondent/. The Humanitarian Mine-Clearing Team of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry has started operations in its area of responsibility in Kosovo. The Emergency Situations Ministry press service disclosed that 24 sappers and 8 mine-seeking dogs that comprise the team have started enforced sweeping of the area.


	The Russian sappers' first zone of responsibility is around the town of Vitina, eastern Kosovo. The Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman stressed the fact that the sappers cannot yet start demining the territory, because snow has not yet melted in the area, hampering their efforts.


	Russian rescue workers are dispatched in Kosovo on a mission of the UN Mine Clearing Center. The head of the UN MCC, John McFlenagan, said that Russian emergency relief personnel will operate in the German sector, near the Albanian border, afterward. The humanitarian mine clearing team is expected to stay in Kosovo for a total of six months.


	Russian Emergency Situations Ministry sappers saw their baptism of fire in the Balkans way back in 1999. Back then, they defused more than 2 thousand explosive devices. Last year, 22 Emergency Situations Ministry sappers swept 36 minefields with a total surface of 155,000 square meters and defused nearly 2,000 mines of various purpose and design. The press service emphasized this was an absolute record among the 16 engineer teams from various countries that demined Kosovo within the framework of the UN MCC program.