Minister Lajic and Minister Despotovic, representing their respective Prime Ministers, today signed an agreement between the governments on Co-operation in the field of Mine Action. This meets one of the deadlines set by the Bonn Conference concerning the transfer of responsibility for demining from the UN to the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities.
The Agreement was formulated by the representatives of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Commission for Demining and an international donors body, co-chaired by the OHR and UN. It commits the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska to supporting a joint entity body, the Bosnia Herzegovina Mine Action Centre, which will be responsible for the functions currently carried out by the UN Mine Action Centre. These consist of such activities as maintaining a central minefield database providing information from it to all interested organisations, authorities and the public.