Each time the armies laid mines. In farmers fields, along the roadside and near power lines. Now Bosnian Army Sergeant Nedzad Hadzic supervises while volunteers search the land for the deadly devices.

He loves his work but he/d much rather not be doing it. He and his team are working on clearing a minefield laid in 1992 by the Serbs in a suburb called Protoka, two km west of the city.

   In their work on the minefield so far, Sgt. Hadzic and his team have found a RPG (rocket propelled grenade) motor and several anti-personnel fragmentation mines.

*We know there are mines here. I/m responsible for my de-miners and they are responsible for themselves. If they find any known or unknown ordinance then they inform me and I decide if that ordinance will be removed or destroyed,* Sgt. Hadzic nicknamed Gypsy said through an interpreter.

   At the end of the day anything found is destroyed where it was found.

*There are no files or records that could tell us how many mines we will find here. There is no one in Bosnian who has exact information or data as to how many mines there are. There are only estimates and that means on both sides. That estimate is between two and three million mines. The prognosis is that it will take 30 years to de-mine all the areas but Im telling you that all those mines will never be destroyed totally,* he said.

There are two teams working on the mine-site at the same time. One team uses a remote-controlled machine called a Bozini. Its really a Bobcat with a chain-flail attached to the front. The flail spins and strikes the ground hard, penetrating down to a depth of about 2 centimetres.

After the ground looks like it has been thoroughly roto-tilled, its still not quite safe to walk on. The Bosnia was donated by the Canadian government and under the control of SFOR (Stabilization Force).

   The second team or manual team uses hand-held metal detectors and two-pronged probes to search the ground two centimetres at a time.

*After the Bozinin goes through the area isn/t cleared until something alive has walked on it. So we use the dogs and then after that the dogs handler covers it himself,* Monitor Sergeant Jaret Spencer said.

Minefields are selected for clearing according to priority. The first priority is on land for returning refugees, the second is for agriculture land and the third is for wooded areas.

Now more than 200 metres from where Sgt. Hadzics team are working there are inhabited homes.

Media visitors to the minefield search area must obey a few simple but strictly enforced rules. They include; never pick anything, stay within the areas marked with yellow or blue mine-tape, tell the medic your blood type and obey Sgt. Spencer at all times.

*The Bosnian military must de-mine their country and maintain a de-mining capability, under direction from SFOR. They must de-mine their country to a humanitarian level which is 99.6 per cent. Most of the de-mining in this country is being done by the civilian de-mining companies,* Sgt. Spencer said.