DUSHANBE, June 25, Asia-Plus — Over the past week, de-mining teams of the Tajik Mine Action Cell (TMAC) have cleared 3,600 square meters of land in the country, and 370 anti-personnel mines, 34 cluster bombs, 34 other unexploded ordnances and one self-made explosive have been destroyed, according to the TMAC.

The unexploded cluster bombs were discovered mainly in the vicinities of Gharm, the administrative center of the Rasht district.  The cluster bombs were airdropped in the Rasht Valley (eastern Tajikistan) in the 1990-s, during the civil war in the country, according to the source.

A source at the TMAC said that at present three-de-mining teams and four investigation teams are working in Panj, Hamadoni, Rudaki, Rasht and Darvoz districts.  

The TMAC de-mining teams have cleared 15,407 square meters of land in Tajikistan.  3,600 square meters of land and destroyed 603 anti-personnel mines and 77 unexploded ordnances in the country this year so far.  Since the 2003,  when the de-mining program was launched in Tajikistan, they have cleared 508,819 square meters of land and destroyed 766 unexploded ordnances and 3,061 anti-personnel mines, the source said.   In all, the de-mining tams have to clear 25 million square meters of land.

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.