Demining and EOD Seminar, Sarajevo, B&H

Between 7^th and 9^th of September, the Head of EOD Technologies Department LTC Damian Piórko represented EOD COE during Demining and EOD Seminar in Sarajevo, B&H. Event was organised by Mr. Martyn Hill, Intelligence-Sec with its business office in London.

Agenda was broken down to three days event. In the first day, topics covered regional mine actions programmes in Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia & Hercegovina. All presentations reflected current situation related to demining and clearance activities in these countries.

The second day focused on ongoing projects and any other undertakings NATO Centre of Excellences are facing these days. Namely, C-IED COE rep explained the common misuse and misunderstanding of the term: C-IED which shouldn’t be only “device” related, but it encapsulates broaden aspect of counterterrorism.

Director of MILENG COE concentrated mainly on MILENG capabilities placement in the future battlefield with regards to mobility and counter-mobility. It is worth mentioning information claimed be the reps of UN and NGO to support  mine clearance operations, who depicted the lack of common platform to communicate the aspects of C-IED and EOD that would align with NATO mission and procedures.

During the last day of the event, participants visited demining site near Sarajevo. Organizer presented the results of already demined areas and told its history. He warned that threat still existed and gave two examples of recent incidents where local citizens had been wounded by the mines. The event was concluded with live demonstration of personnel rescue procedures affected by the mine explosion.

The whole event was an excellent example of how demining and EOD commence to merge nowadays. Close cooperation between deminers and EOD operators was presented by Bosnian reps, who impressed it on the participants that activities and conditions in peacetime are completely different than during frantically led war or battle.