IARP International Workshop on Robotics and Mechanical Assistance in Humanitarian Demining HUDEM2005 Proceedings Japan Science and Technology Agency Under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology June 21 – June 23, 2005 National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) 2-41 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0064, Japan http://www.hudem2005.org Dear Authors, and Attendees, As the general chair of Robotics and Mechanical Assistance in Humanitarian Demining (HUDEM 2005) in Tokyo, I should like to cordially welcome all experts and participants of workshop. We, Office of Development of Sensors and Clearance Technology for Humanitarian Demining, Japan Science and Technology Agency, are pleased to host IARP HUDEM 2005 following the workshop in Brussels-Leuven, Belgium last year. Japan Science and Technology Agency started the project of developing sensors and access technology for humanitarian demining since October 2002 based on the report from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and has finished the trial test of the developed sensors and vehicles in Sakaide, Kagawa, Japan receiving demining experts from Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos and other international organizations. Some of the developed sensors and vehicles shall be presented in the papers at this workshop, and demonstrated at the technical tour on June 22. Mr. Keizo Obuchi, who attended Ottawa Meeting in 1997 as a Minister of Foreign Affairs, proposed “Zero Victim Program” which initiated the Japanese support to the mine affected countries, and from 2002, we started to contribute Humanitarian Demining using advanced technologies. This workshop IARP HUDEM aims humanitarian contribution to mine affected countries and peoples through advanced technologies. For the development technical people should learn real mine action problems and present international activities. We appreciate keynote speakers, Mr. Oto Jungwirth Croatian Mine Action Center, and Mr. Noel Mulliner, United Nation Mine Action Service (UNMAS) for introducing the real problems to technical experts and hope that we can exchange information for the effective development of mechanical assistance in Humanitarian Demining. Katsuhisa Furuta General Chair of HUDEM2005 Tokyo Denki University Proc. of the IARP International workshop on Robotics and Mechanical Assistance in Humanitarian Demining (HUDEM2005) Mine Action in the Republic of Croatia and Ways to Solve It Oto Jungwirtha* a Croatian Mine Action Centre, Ante Kovacica 10, SISAK-44 000, Republic of Croatia ABSTRACT Most of his years of service, total of 27 years, he has been working in government administration bodies on the positions from the officer to the head in the sphere of defence, safety and other related works. He is an author and a reviewer of a number of expert and methodological instructions, articles and other expert works from the field sphere mentioned. He has been significantly involved in demining problem area of mine contaminated areas in the Republic of Croatia since the completion of war activities in the Republic of Croatia. As a representative of the Ministry of Economy he has been involved into humanitarian demining system development from the very beginning and since the establishment of the Croatian Centre for Mines and later on the Croatian Mine Action Centre as a member of its Council. Since March 2002, he has filled the position of CROMAC Deputy Director and based on Croatian Government decree he was appointed as CROMAC Director and is still filling the same position today. At the beginning of the aggression to the Republic of Croatia he became actively involved in country defence. Since October 1991, he was in command of 145 brigade of the Croatian army on various battlefields of Sisak-Moslavina County to the southern counties. In April 1992, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Croatia he was commissioned as a reserve colonel of the Croatian army. At the end of 1992 he was demobilized and he returned to the position that he left when he went to war but he continued participating and organizing country defence. He is a member of defendological association and he actively participates in its activities especially when it comes to his work related issues. Keywords: Humanitarian demining, mine situation, demining machines, National plan 1. INTRODUCTION The Croatian Mine Action Centre was established on 19th February 1998 with the basic task of planning and conducting mine action in the Republic of Croatia. The landmine problem was recognized as an economic, ecological and safety problem and one of the impediments to normal life and development. Accordingly, the highest state authorities are involved in the efforts to overcome the problem – the Croatian Parliament and the Government, which appoints the Picture 1: CROMAC Organizational scheme CROMAC Council, a body with the task of coordinating An expanded picture is attached at the end of this paper. the work of CROMAC. In October 2000 the Croatian Parliament passed the National Mine Action Program, The Croatian Mine Action Centre performs the determining the objective: to demine the Croatian territory following tasks: by the year 2009. In 2004, the National Mine Action Program revision was made, goals were clearly set and - Coordinating the mine action in Croatia their realization mode defined. - Mine risk education - Mine victim assistance The National Mine Action Program Proposal drafted by - Advocating the ban of antipersonnel CROMAC is currently under consideration and adoption landmines procedure by the Government of the Republic of Croatia - International cooperation and the Croatian Parliament. The Croatian Mine Action Centre develops Annual Demining Plan proposals and submits them to the Government for approval. In addition to its headquarters in Sisak, the Croatian Mine Action Centre has its regional * [email protected] ; phone +385 44 554 100; fax +385 44 554 111 1 21 - 23 June 2005, Tokyo, Japan Proc. of the IARP International workshop on Robotics and Mechanical Assistance in Humanitarian Demining (HUDEM2005) offices in Osijek, Karlovac and Zadar. In this way all the 3. THE PLAN FOR DEMINING counties are operationally covered and efficiency and decentralization of mine action activities have been enhanced. The Plan for demining of the Croatian territory is prepared There are three sectors and two departments within in accordance with the National Mine Action Program in CROMAC, these are: Sector for Operations, Sector for the Republic of Croatia and is based on the following Planning, Analysis and Finances, Logistics Sector, Quality factors: Assurance and Quality Control Department and - Counties’ needs and requests – priorities and Informational Technology Department. the structures of the areas to be demined are IT department contains all the data required for planning related to the various needs of each County and conducting mine action activities. Since the respectively, establishment of the Croatian Mine Action Centre IT department has been developing itself according to - Public and other companies’ in the Republic of Croatia needs and requests, technology development the quality of data collected using various methods. Development of the new database called - Defined mined and mine suspected areas CROMAC GIP is currently in progress. CROMAC GIP - Analysis of the area to be demined in Pilot project was prepared in the year 2004. With this accordance with the available financial project, it is planned to create the unique topographical resources. database to be at disposal to CROMAC as well as other In order to continue with the implementation of the mine action subjects. systematic and efficient demining of the areas in the One of the basic prerequisites for the new database Republic of Croatia that were contaminated by mines and development is the Scan Centre, donated by the Kingdom UXO during the Homeland war (1991 – 1995), the Plan of Norway. The SCAN Centre basic task is gathering data takes in consideration the following characteristic groups on mine suspected areas from the maps. SCAN Centre will of activities: return of the population, reconstruction and have the following work phases: construction of the infrastructure, revitalization of the - The establishment of SCAN Centre – at the economy and agriculture, nature and environment beginning of March, 2005 protection, State border belt, explosive ordnance disposal - Georeferencing of scanned data (EOD), marking and fencing. - Data vectorization. Main mine action funding source in Croatia is the State Budget, and these funds are constantly increased each year. When other funding sources are added to the State Budget funds, e.g. funds provided by public companies, loans, donations and others, from 1998 to 2005 more than 214 million EUR were spent for mine action in Croatia. In this figure donations contributed for mine action make approximately 15% of the total amount. Graf’s: Tendency of demining investments by sources in million Euro State Budget Funds 20 20 20 15 15 13 11 Picture 2: Ortophoto map with MSA and positions of warning 10 10 signs 10 5 0 2. MINE SITUATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF 1998. 1999. 2000. 2001. 2002. 2003. 2004. CROATIA Public Companies Funds 14 At the time when CROMAC was established, the mine 14 10 suspected area was estimated at 10,000 km2, while in 2004 12 10 the estimate was reduced to 1174 km2 mainly due to the 10 application of the general survey method, technical survey 8 6 and demining methods.