page_title: Minefields in Croatia
section_title: Mine awareness and education
hierarchical_section_title: Minefields in Croatia / Existing minefields / Mine awareness and education
caption_attribution_description: English: minefield sign photographed in Croatia
context_page_description: Minefields in Croatia cover 351.00 square kilometres of territory. As of 2019, the minefields are located in 54 cities and municipalities within 8 counties. These areas are thought to contain approximately 31,000 land mines, in addition to unexploded ordnance left over from the Croatian War of Independence. Land mines were used extensively during the war by all sides in the conflict; about 1.5 million were deployed. They were intended to strengthen defensive positions lacking sufficient weapons or manpower, but played a limited role in the fighting.
  After the war 13,000 square kilometres of territory was initially suspected to contain mines, but this estimate was later reduced to 1,174 square kilometres after physical inspection. As of 2013 demining programmes were coordinated through governmental bodies such as the Croatian Mine Action Centre, which was hiring private demining companies employing 632 deminers. The areas are marked with 12,280 warning signs.
  As of 4 April 2013, 509 people had been killed and 1,466 injured by land mines in Croatia since the war; with these figures including 60 deminers and seven Croatian Army engineers killed during demining operations.
context_section_description: Croatia has implemented a mine-awareness educational programme aimed at reducing the frequency of mine-related accidents through an ongoing information campaign. The programme is conducted by the Croatian Red Cross, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and a number of NGOs in cooperation with the Croatian Mine Action Centre. The Croatian Mine Action Centre actively supports NGOs to develop as many programmes as possible and attract new NGOs to mine-awareness and educational activities. It maintains an accessible online database with cartographic information on the location of mine-suspected areas in Croatia.
  One mine-awareness campaign involving billboard advertising attracted criticism from the Ministry of Tourism and the Croatian National Tourist Board (CNTB) because the signs were placed in tourist areas, far from any mine-suspected areas. The Ministry of Tourism and the CNTB welcomed the effort's humanitarian aspect, but considered the signs a potential source of unwarranted negative reaction from tourists. Tourist guidebooks of Croatia include warnings about the danger posed by mines in the country, and provide general information about their location.
caption: Mine-awareness billboard
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