Why do land mines seem to be a more serious problem in the Balkans than the Alps?
Upvote:4
It's not in the Alps, but it's interesting to note that even after 70 years, in one of the most highly developed regions of the world, not all land mines have been cleared. See for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eifel_National_Park#Minefield_danger
Upvote:7
Mines are normally not installed in the mountains. They are installed to prevent the passage of tanks (anti-tank mines) or personnel (anti-personnel mines). So they are laid in the fields on on the roads, but in a really rough terrain they are useless (and difficult to install).
This said, the last war in the Alps ended 70 years ago, and it was on the territory of highly developed states, so there was plenty of time and resources to clear them. Which is not the case in Balkans.
You can see plenty of fences with the warning "mines" near Israel borders with Syria as well. Perhaps nobody really wants to clean them.
Upvote:35
The short answer is that there was a concentrated effort in post-WW2 Europe to clear known minefields. France, for example, used POWs to do the dirty work.
Longer answer is that the post-WW2 period was very different than the post-Balkan Wars period. At its heart, WW2 was a "tidier" war with two opposed groups of nation states with relatively disciplined armies going at each other, rather than a multi-sided war that included non-state armed groups/militias. In the post-WW2 period, the clear winners were able to mobilize resources that allowed them to make a concentrated effort to demine vast areas of Europe. You simply didn't have the resources, organization or opportunity to do the same thing in the Balkans.
All of that being said, mine clearance post-WW2 was not a complete success story. Just ask people living in North Africa.
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