Program for Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Marshall Legacy Institute Donates 12 Landmine Detection Dogs to Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina is among the most heavily mine affected nations in Europe, remnants of the five-year civil war in the former Yugoslavia.  An estimated 600,000 citizens of Bosnia are still threatened by landmines.  Bosnia’s national humanitarian demining program is well-run and making significant progress.  Mine detection dogs have been working in Bosnia since the 1990s, but many have reached retirement age or are expected to retire in the next couple of year, which would leave the country without some of its most effective assets for finding landmines and restoring land to its citizens.

The Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI) created a partnership with the International Trust Fund for Humanitarian Demining and Victims’ Assistance (ITF) and the Mine Detection Dog Center for Southeastern Europe (MDDC) to provide twelve fully trained mine detection dogs to local non-government organizations in Bosnia to replace retiring dogs.  The twelve dogs are all trained by the MDDC, a dog training facility in Bosnia founded by the U.S. State Department, resulting in increases to indigenous capacity for humanitarian demining twice, first through improving the local training programs and secondly through the actual dogs, which will remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Links:
Photo's of Dog School in Bosnia
Photo's of a visit to a minefield in Bosnia