ZAGREB, January 21, 2019 - Five international mine removal specialists, including one Croatian, were killed on Sunday by an accidental explosion in Yemen while transporting mines and explosives to be destroyed, foreign media outlets reported on Monday.

The MASAM Demining Project says Monday that two South Africans, a Croatian, a Bosnian and a Kosovar were killed a day earlier while transporting the material in the central Marib province to a remote location where it could be safely detonated. It says a British national was wounded.

The project, part of the Saudi King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, began last year and seeks to remove unexploded ordnance from Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been at war with Iran-aligned Houthi rebels since 2015.

More news on the demining issues can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 15, 2018 - Some 50 unionists and employees of the Croatian Mine Action Centre (HCR) rallied on Thursday outside the government and parliament buildings in St. Mark's Square to protest against a government decision under which as of 1 January 2019 the HCR will be joined with the Ministry of the Interior and cease to exist as a separate demining public institution, which could significantly slow down or even stop the mine removal process.

The union of mine removal experts claims that the government's decision of August 2, which is aimed at reducing the number of agencies, funds and institutes, was made without any prior analysis with regard to the HCR and it fears that this could hamper the absorption of money from EU funds and the mine removal process.

They sought a meeting with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković or his deputy Tomislav Tolušić, who is in charge of implementing the government decision.

Unionist Mario Barjaktarić told reporters that the planned integration of the HCR and the Ministry of the Interior would also bring into question the rights of mine removal experts, which the union would not accept. He said that the HCR's reorganisation in the last three months had been carried out covertly and that the union had been marginalised in the process.

Barjaktarić also noted that some high-ranking officials knowingly counted on a part of dissatisfied workers leaving, given that their wages would drop after the HCR was joined with the Ministry of the Interior.

Another unionist, Željko Tkalčević, said that the process of mine removal in Croatia would be completed in a few years' time, by which time most workers would have met retirement conditions.

A total of 160 HCR employees and about 600 other people from the private sector are involved in the mine removal process.

Tkalčević said that because of this, there is no reason to join the HCR and the Ministry of the Interior, especially not without a prior analysis.

Currently 70% of mine removal exerts meet retirement conditions, and there is a lack of such professionals on the labour market, Tkalčević said, expressing concern that the mine removal process could come to a halt.

For more on the demining efforts in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, September 18, 2018 - Clearing 1.8 square kilometres of mines between Sisak and Petrinja of as many as 3,585 explosive devices left behind after the Homeland War is a great success for Croatia's model of mine clearing and is globally recognised.

ZAGREB, July 12, 2018 - The municipality of Tounj has been removed from the list of areas believed to be mine-infested, mayor Ivica Sopek said on Wednesday after Croatian Mine Action Centre (HCR) head Zdravko Modrušan presented Karlovac deputy county head Vesna Hajsan Dolinar with a document confirming that an area of 89,960 square metres near the Tounjčica River had been cleared of explosive devices left over from the 1991-95 war.

ZAGREB, May 23 (Hina) - In the last 20 years, Croatia has spent nearly 5.5 billion kuna (743 million euro) on mine clearance operations, and 595 people have been injured by mine explosions since the end of the 1991-1995 war, including 203 fatally, the Croatian parliament was told on Friday.

ZAGREB, February 9, 2018 - Over 5.7 million square metres of land has been cleared of unexploded mines left over from the 1991-1995 war as part of two EU-funded projects in three Croatian counties, a closing conference for the two projects was told in Zagreb on Friday.

ZAGREB, January 22, 2018 - A mine clearing project in the Croatian municipality of Dvor at the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, totalling four square kilometres, has been completed, enabling better surveillance and access to the state border , it was said in Sisak on Monday.

ZAGREB, January 21, 2018 - DOK-ING, a Croatian privately-owned company specialising in the production of robotised and special purposes systems and equipment, has recently presented its project of a remote-controlled vehicle that can operate in extreme conditions, and this 16.5-million kuna project about the vehicle that can operate in conditions of nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological and explosive threats is being developed in cooperation with the Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER).

Many of the more remote areas are still dangerous, 23 years after the end of the war.

More than 22 years since the end of the war, the demining process in Osijek-Baranja County is coming towards its end.