Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC November 21, 2006 United States Assistance to the Regional Center for Underwater Demining in the BalkansA $92,000 donation from the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs was used to overhaul and equip a 22-meter patrol vessel that will be used for humanitarian underwater demining and divers training in the eastern Adriatic Sea, supporting and increasing the capabilities of the Regional Center for Underwater Demining (RCUD), based in Bijela, Montenegro. The $92,000 were channeled through the International Trust Fund (ITF) for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance in Slovenia, a regional humanitarian mine action center receiving approximately $10 million annually from the United States to support mine action throughout the Balkans. The vessel was donated by the former State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. Its overhaul provided economic stimulus to the shipyard workers in Tivat, Montenegro. It will now serve as a modern diving platform and mobile base of operations for the clearance of unexploded munitions, sea mines, and even land mines that affect the coasts and littoral waters of Montenegro, Croatia, and Albania, and contribute to confidence-building in the region. See related photos at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/b/76385.htm. This donation is part of the more than $950,000 that the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement has provided to the Regional Center for Underwater Demining, the only such entity in the world, to date. To learn more about United States mine action in the Balkans and about the Regional Center for Underwater Demining, refer to the Sixth Edition of "To Walk the Earth in Safety," the annual report of the inter-agency U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program, at http://www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rpt/walkearth/2006/. 2006/1061 |