About 1,000 explosive devices are found and destroyed in Moldova monthly

The Moldovan combat engineers every month discover and neutralize about 1,000 explosive devices dating from the period of armed conflicts. “The most dangerous places are located in the center of Moldova. The number of unexploded devices found in southern and northern Moldova is much lower,” Major Igor Gadirca, the head of the Terrestrial Troops General Staff, said Thursday when presenting brochures produced within the project “Informing Moldova’s Population about the Danger Posed by Unexploded Devices”, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The launcher missiles are the most dangerous. They cause 60% of all the explosions. The plane bombs are dangerous because of their volume. They are found seldom, but this year there were annihilated five such bombs,” said Igor Gadirca. Minister of Defense Vitalie Marinuta said he wants Moldova’s population to know about the danger posed by explosive devices. “We printed two types of brochures that will be distributed among schools and mayors’ offices. They describe the types of devices that can be found and how to behave when discovering them,” said the minister. The project is implemented with support from the OSCE Mission to Moldova. “We aim to identify the potential victims that can be affected by explosions of shells and munitions. The victims include mainly children who play in the fields and gardens without being supervised by adults and grownups who cultivate the land. Though the problem of unidentified explosives is not as serious Moldova as in the Balkan countries, it is very important that the authorities do not ignore it,” said the Head of the OSCE Mission, Ambassador Philip Remler. Since 1992 until now, 21 persons, seven of whom children, died and 26 were injured in explosions of munitions. During the last 19 years, there were neutralized more than 20,000 explosive devices.