First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic and Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Konuzin attended today the completion of the demining of "Paracin 3" and "Paracin Lake" areas. The mines were left over after the explosion at army depot in October 2006.

Dacic said that the wars are over, but that there are many unexploded bombs that killed many citizens, including children.

He said that since 2009 up to now 268 acres of land in Paracin and Nis were cleared from mines.

There were 2,700 various items of ordnance, of which 374 pieces were found at locations "Paracin 3" and "Paracin Lake".

Thanks to good cooperation with the Russian Federation, humanitarian demining will be continued next year in March, to clear another 66 hectares, Dacic said.

Dacic said that construction of the Serbian-Russian Centre for Humanitarian Demining and Emergencies in Nis will be completed next year and announced the arrival of a fire-fighting aircraft from Russia and one operating the helicopter to be used in emergency situations.

The Russian Ambassador to Serbia said that the joint centre will have equipment for quick action in case of fire and flooding.

Konuzin said that Russian and Serbian deminers contributed to locating and removing a significant number of ordnance.

The demining was done by the Department for Emergency Situations of the Ministry of the Interior, the Centre for the Demining and the Russian Ministry for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (EMERCOM).

Director of the Centre for Demining Petar Mihajlovic said that 1,300 tonnes of ordnance exploded in military warehouses on 19 October 2006.