They reopened the phone lines between Serbia and the war-torn areas of the Bosnian Federation. They are encouraging civil industry back into the area and are facilitating the election process. This put an end to the frequent gas explosions caused by undetected gas leaks, which were killing dozens of innocent civilians. For three years, my office has run a humanitarian demining program that assists countries in establishing long-term indigenous infrastructures capable of educating the population to protect themselves from land mines, eliminating the hazards of land mines and returning mined land to its previous condition. I believe the time has come for your force, in particular, to add its considerable value to the new mission of humanitarian demining.
Land mines are an enormous problem in Bosnia.
It will likely take 20 years to clear the estimated 6 million land mines in that country. The role of civil affairs in demining in Bosnia is twofold. First, CA soldiers are providing information about the whereabouts of minefields to the mine action center in Sarajevo. The campaign involves the distribution of articles with mine awareness slogans and the future distribution of a comic book with a mine awareness theme using the Superman character. Despite these successes, however, the full potential of civil affairs has not been realized in Bosnia.