“According to our preliminary assessment, there are currently nearly 1 million 167 thousand hectares of hazardous areas in Azerbaijan’s liberated territories,” said First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) Bahruz Mammadov during the discussions held at the Milli Majlis Committee of Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption.
According to Mammadov, 166,000 hectares or 14.2 percent of the total area has been cleared of mines over the past four years. “After four years of demining works, these figures suggest that the process will continue for a long time. This is one of the reasons for developing the Law on “Demining.” Each country should prepare its internal documents in compliance with international standards. While drafting the national mine legislation, the Agency used all the accumulated experience – recommendations of international organizations and the experience of countries which have land mine problems,” he emphasized.