Croatia declared free of landmines after 31 years

I stayed near Dubrovnik in the summer of 2005. There was a wildfire burning on on the hills behind us.

The fire traversed the hillside, and every hour or two a landmine would explode.

This was ten years after the war.

I had the good fortune of going to Croatia (as an American) for work about 10 years ago, and I milked that trip hard. What a beautiful country. Dubrovnik, Split, Hvar Island, it was pretty magical.

I wonder when/if places like vietnam will ever achieve this.

Hell, Australia still has WW2 mines.

I visited Vientiane in Laos a couple years ago. One of the more depressing places to visit there is the COPE Center.

It's a group that provides prosthetics to people who have lost body parts due to landmines left over from the Vietnam War.

Even decades later, there are areas in Laos that have so many unexploded bomblets, it's dangerous to do stuff there, or even build.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minefields_in_Croatia