Notes: CHA = Confirmed Hazardous Area; SHA = Suspected Hazardous Area; ERW = Explosive Remnants of War.

Contamination

The Republic of Montenegro has estimated that just less than 1.72km² of land contains cluster munition remnants, which remained at the same level as in 2016.[2] Areas suspected or confirmed to contain cluster munition remnants are located in two municipalities (Rožaje and Plav) and one urban municipality (Golubovic).[3] The contamination was identified by NPA in its detailed non-technical survey conducted between December 2012 and April 2013. During the survey, NPA made 87 polygons of suspected or confirmed hazardous areas across 11 locations in three municipalities. Contamination was found to affect five communities.[4]

Two suspected areas of cluster munition contamination in Plav municipality, namely at Bogajice and Murino, have still to be surveyed. NPA was prevented by snow from doing so during its 2012–2013 survey.[5] Montenegro has pledged to investigate the villages in Plav suspected to be contaminated with cluster munition remnants.[6]

Montenegro became contaminated with ERW, mainly UXO, as a result of conflicts during the break-up of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.[7] North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air strikes in Montenegro between March and June 1999 included the use of 22 cluster munitions of four different types: AGM-154A JSOW guided missiles, BL755s, CBU-87/Bs, and Mk-20 Rockeyes. These scattered a total of some 4,000 submunitions of four different types: BLU-97A/B, BL755, MK-1, and Mk118.[8] In addition, there is cluster munition contamination in Rožaje, which is the result of the dumping of cluster munitions by the Yugoslav army.[9]

Cluster munition contamination in Montenegro is said to impede the safe use of land for agriculture, harvesting of forest produce, and use of wood by the timber industry.[10]

Other explosive remnants of war

Montenegro is also heavily contaminated by other ERW, with items of UXO discovered daily throughout the country, on land as well as in rivers and the sea.[11] The NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) project, which was launched in Montenegro in 2014 to provide the UXO clearance team of the Directorate for Emergency Situations with technical capacity and training in the detection and destruction of UXO,ended in December 2017.[12]

Program Management

The Directorate for Emergency Situations, established in 2006 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is responsible for mine action in Montenegro, performing the role of a national mine action center.[13] Prior to 2017, due to a lack of human resources and equipment, the role of the national mine action center had previously been undertaken by the Regional Center for Divers’ Training and Underwater Demining (RCUD).[14]

The Department for UXO within the Directorate for Emergency Situations has only five staff, who are primarily dedicated to clearance of UXO other than submunitions, which comprises the bulk of explosive remnants contamination in Montenegro.[15] Due to lack of funding, responsibility for EOD has remained with the police.[16]

The NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) project, which was launched in Montenegro in 2014 to provide the UXO clearance team of the Directorate for Emergency Situations with technical capacity and training in the detection and destruction of UXO,ended in December 2017.[17]

Legislation and standards

Montenegro has requested international assistance to meet the demands of the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS), as well as for capacity-building (training, equipment, vehicles) and ERW clearance.[18]

In March 2018, the Directorate for Emergency Situationsreported that it had prepared a rule book on the destruction of UXO and was currently working on drafting national mine action legislation.[19]

Quality management

In December 2017, NPA organized a workshop in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior of Montenegro’s Directorate for Emergency Situations, on the “Application of standard operating procedures for technical survey and clearance of areas contaminated with cluster munition remnants with special emphasis on internal and external quality control.”

The aim of the workshop was to familiarize employees of the Directorate for Emergency Situations with standing operating procedures relating to technical survey and clearance of cluster munition remnants and to train them on how to undertake quality control of those operations. The five participants from the Directorate for Emergency Situations successfully completed the NPA training.[20] The Directorate for Emergency Management, under the Ministry of Interior, will be responsible for external quality monitoring and issuing of quality control (QC) certificates in operations on cluster munition-contaminated area.[21]

Operators

International clearance operator, NPA, was expecting to begin cluster munition survey and clearance operations in 2018, with the aim of helping Montenegro meet its Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 deadline as soon as possible.NPA plans to deploy one team, comprising six clearance personnel, in addition to a medic, team leader, quality assistance (QA) officer, site manager, operations manager, and program manager.[22]

Land Release

No land release operations took place in 2017.[23]

Article 4 Compliance

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Montenegro is required to destroy all cluster munition remnants in areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 August 2020.

Funding for the remaining cluster munition survey and clearance was secured in May 2018, from the government of Norway, to be conducted by NPA.If cluster munition survey and clearance operations commence swiftly and without undue delay, Montenegro may still be in a position to complete clearance of the remaining cluster munition-contaminated area by its Convention on Cluster Munitions deadline.

Except for destruction of a very small number of submunitions discovered during construction work and project-based survey, there has been no planned clearance of cluster munition remnants in Montenegro in the last five years.

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the primary mine action research in 2018 and shared all its country-level landmine reports (from “Clearing the Mines 2018”) and country-level cluster munition reports (from “Clearing Cluster Munition Remnants 2018”) with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.