I am walking through Bosnia and will benefit from knowing where I can camp when necessary and not risk stepping on a mine whilst off the path. Is there a detailed map of the mine situation in Bosnia would be suitable for this purpose?
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11No map is foolproof. Many groups during the war, particularly militias or irregular troops, will not have kept precise records. Best method is to stay at organised/commercial/institutional campsites, or in areas that are known to be popular with campers and hence almost certainly safe.– Stuart FCommented Jun 12, 2023 at 14:15
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1Talk to the locals. I did this while hiking Bosnia, Cambodia, and Laos -- maps suffer a lack of accuracy for a variety of reasons detailed in answers/comments, but locals will often have a more immediate but less "official" understanding of the surrounding area.– Roddy of the Frozen PeasCommented Jun 13, 2023 at 12:55
2 Answers
The wikipedia article on Land mines in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a rough map that shows where the majority of mines are:
This really only shows that you will potentially encounter mines all over the place. And because there is issue of any sort of unexploded ordinances, it would be impossible to have a completely 100% accurate map anyway.
But in another article about the mines There’s an app for that (my emphasis)
Thanks to a European Union initiative, Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Centre, with the assistance of the BiH Armed Forces, Norwegian People’s Aid, UNDP and EUFOR, successfully defined 8,525 suspected micro-locations and 118 mine suspected areas were registered out of the country’s 145 municipalities. The Mine Action Centre defined areas of these locations for future land release operations.
Knowing the locations of these mines can be lifesaving. Part of the initiative has been to create a mobile phone application that allows citizens to be aware of and avoid the locations of mine suspected areas throughout the country.
The article has links to the app for both Google and Apple app stores. This would seem to give you the latest information on the situation. Note that the excerpt says "suspected areas". Again, this hints at there not being a definitive location of all areas with mines.
But I'd say he best advice would be not to go where locals don't go, and to ask locals whenever you are in a new area.
And as per the comment from @Traveller, another good resource is BiH Minefield Maps which has downloadable maps showing areas of suspected mines etc, and covers the entire country. However, there are 2 important notes on that page:
This map shows areas with known contamination of mines and unexploded ordinance. Information is provided by BHMAC. All other areas are to be treated with caution. Updated information is available from BHMAC.
Symbols and drawn objects represent approximate mined areas. To date only 60% of mined areas have been identified.
Here is some excerpts from a random location:
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Thanks. I wonder if it's best to stick to the cleared areas to stay safe, and whether they are safer than the "no obvious risk areas" for example.– noviceCommented Jun 16, 2023 at 11:46
No map will be 100% accurate. There are still mines being discovered in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark that the Germans placed there in WW2 and they supposedly kept meticulous records.
But not only were those records not always properly kept, sometimes they got lost. And even if they didn't get lost, the mines themselves can have shifted and changed location. And of course the Germans weren't the only ones placing minefields there (especially in the Netherlands and Belgium).
In (former) Yugoslavia the situation is much worse. Not only are there far more parties involved, they also were far less diligent about record keeping, and far more documentation was lost. In such a country (and former Yugoslavia is but one example, Cambodia is infamous for it, so are many places in Africa and elsewhere in Asia) I'd not venture off the beaten path, especially alone without a native guide who knows the area very well.
And even then, watch your step.