GIs’ Big Fear About Bosnia: the Land Mines

Too embarrassed to urinate in front of a female reporter and a female military intelligence officer, a 25-year-old corporal stepped off the snow-covered road in search of a tree.

The mistake detonated a thundering explosion. As a unit, all dove for cover, belly down in the icy snow. Soldiers screamed for the two medical evacuation specialists, yelling that a mine had blown off the reservist’s legs and gouged open his chest.

During a mine awareness training program at the 7th Army Command base northeast of Nuremberg, the blunder was real. The injuries were not. The corporal emerged red-faced over his mistake--an action that in Bosnia, a land pitted with deadly land mines, could have killed him and others.

“You have to be smart,” 1st Lt. Monica Flower, a military intelligence officer, told the young man, who will leave here shortly to assume his duties as part of the U.S. peacekeeping force.

Ask any soldier what is the most worrisome threat facing U.S. troops deploying for peacekeeping duty in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the answer won’t be snipers, cold weather or rugged terrain.

It is land mines.

U.S. intelligence estimates show that there are at least 3 million unexploded land mines scattered across the Bosnian countryside, and there may be as many as 8 million, some of them sophisticated and hard to detect.

Indeed, the Human Rights Watch Arms Project says the Yugoslav-manufactured plastic antipersonnel mines are among the most difficult to detect in the world.

Between early 1992 and mid-1995, there were more than 200 casualties among United Nations peacekeepers from mines in Bosnia, including 20 deaths. Coming to grips with this threat has been a prerequisite for all Americans assigned to ground duty in Bosnia.

About 50 soldiers and a dozen reporters and photographers recently went through one of many intensive one-day training sessions, a course that included inching through snow in below-freezing weather while looking for tripwires and hidden mines.

It also included watching gruesome footage of soldiers immediately after they had stepped on mines, bloody limbs akimbo, chunks of flesh torn from their bodies.

Here, the Americans learn about mines designed to look like a spare part that fell off a Humvee, just the sort of thing a soldier might pick up, thinking it could be useful. Or a mine so sensitive it can be activated if a soldier set his Kevlar helmet on it. Or a mine mounted on a stick that can take out an entire squad.

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The presence of so many different kinds of mines in Bosnia means troops may be forced to move slowly, creeping forward in blustery weather, halting frequently, checking and double-checking for telltale signs.

It is just this combination of numbing cold and the world’s most ingenious mines--buried in snow, ensconced in trees, hidden beneath what looks like a dropped glove--that causes waves of anxiety to ripple through soldiers and reporters alike.

“May God help me,” said one soldier, articulating everyone’s silent prayer.

Finding the land mines will be even more difficult than usual because much of the country’s terrain is covered by snow, which hides all but the most obvious explosive devices.

Adding to the danger, relatively few of Bosnia’s minefields have been charted by the warring factions. Under an annex to the Dayton, Ohio, peace accord, the three warring sides have pledged to locate and remove the mines they have deployed, but few are counting on that, since even the Serbs, Muslims and Croats don’t know where many of them are.

The plan is for U.S. and NATO troops to remove only those mines they need to in order to perform their missions. The fact that the rest will be allowed to stay in place could help discourage the forces of the various warring factions from crossing into unauthorized territory, some planners suggest.

U.S. soldiers are taught first to avoid mines by staying on cleared roads as much as possible, then to detect them by looking for craters or scorch marks, debris, dead animals or a conspicuous absence of humans.

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“If you don’t see any animals or people there, there’s a possibility you’ve got a minefield,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Howell M. Estes, operations director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Army is also equipping its soldiers and armored vehicles with a wide array of devices--used successfully in the 1991 Persian Gulf War--designed to reduce the risk of casualties.

Tanks and armored personnel vehicles will carry large metal plows and rollers to help clear a path. The plows, which are used for exposed mines, cut small trenches underneath the mines and flip them over, out of the way. The rollers are used to get rid of buried mines. They roll over the mines a few yards ahead of the tanks and detonate the explosives in place. The tanks that carry these devices have been “hardened” with extra armor underneath.

Soldiers are also being issued so-called Schiebel mine detectors, which are sensitive enough to home in on the small amount of metal in fuzes. The Army will also use dogs trained to sniff out explosives.

Sometimes, disposal teams shoot explosive charges onto a suspected mine and simply blow it up. Finally, there’s the old-fashioned plastic probe--a 10-foot pole--that can be used to pick at spots on the ground where a mine might be planted. It’s a tough and stressful job, which must be done slowly, inch by inch.

Despite all this, mine-clearing techniques are not foolproof. The General Accounting Office, Congress’ watchdog agency, warned earlier this year that even the most effective techniques are time-consuming, expensive and labor-intensive.

Today’s technology also does not perform well against newer kinds of mines, especially plastic ones. And state-of-the-art technology such as infrared sensors, ground-penetrating radar, microwaves, photon backscatters and lasers are said to be less reliable than traditional methods.

Besides the physical danger to the troops, the mines also pose a political threat. Most analysts believe that high casualties from mines could heighten pressure in Congress to pull U.S. troops out of Bosnia.

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Estes said U.S. soldiers have been told to be extra cautious.

“You assume there are mines until you’re proven different,” he said.

There are three recorded minefields in the Tuzla area, where most of the U.S. troops will be stationed. It used to be standard policy among Eastern Bloc militaries to place mines around airfields, and the Tuzla airport is no exception.

U.S. officials suspect that the other two minefields were established by the Bosnian Muslims to protect themselves against the Serbs.

Still, the sector to be patrolled by Americans is considered lightly mined compared to the British and French zones in western and southern Bosnia, respectively.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has assembled a minefield database using information provided by U.N. peacekeeping forces, and NATO officials have gotten more from local factions. But the charting is far from complete.

U.N. estimates suggest that, not accounting for whatever the military accomplishes, it would take 1,000 mine clearers about 33 years to cover all mine-contaminated areas in Bosnia and Croatia.

Times staff writer Art Pine in Washington contributed to this report.

* U.N. SIGNS OFF: Security Council OKs NATO deployment in Bosnia. A6

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On Deadly Ground

Land-mines will be one of the major threats facing U.S. and NATO troops in Bosnia. While no one knows for sure, intelligence estimates suggest there are at least 3 million unexploded land mines in Bosnia and perhaps as many as 8 million.

Location: Relatively few of them have been charted on maps. And they are spread all over the country, not just on battlegrounds. There are at least three major minefields in the sector where U.S. troops will operate, including one around Tuzla airfield, but the U.S. sector is less saturated than other areas.

Detection: Most are plastic, rather than metal, making them more difficult to detect. Much of Bosnia is covered by snow, making mines harder to see. And the frozen turf will make them more difficult to deal with once discovered. Another complication: areas that may be safe to walk on when frozen could become lethal once the ground thaws in the spring.

Equipment: Tanks and armored vehicles are being outfitted with large metal plows and rollers, used during the Persian Gulf War

The plows cut furrows beneath buried mines and flip them to the side.

The rollers detonate mines in place.

Soldiers: Issued special mine detectors that are able to detect tiny metal fuze parts used in plastic mines. And the Army will use special dogs, trained to sniff out explosives.

Types of Mines Found In Bosnia

Most mines found in Bosnia were manufactured in the former Yugoslavia or Soviet Union. The most common types are:

--PROM-1 (AntiPersonnel Bouncing Mine No. 1), as tall as a coffee can but narrower, which explodes out of the ground, spraying red hot metal at waist level.

--A small antipersonnel mine with 1.7 ounces of TNT packed into a plastic case the size of a tuna fish tin. It can blow a foot off, but they are planted in clusters, so victims usually fall on others and suffer further injuries.

-- A small magnetic mine just bigger than a cigarette pack, carrying 7 ounces of TNT. It is activated by the proximity of metal or the pressure of a footstep.

-- AntiPersonnel Mine No. 2, made of 7 ounces grams of TNT packed into an iron cylinder and triggered by trip wire. It sprays an area with shrapnel.

Researched by ART PINE / Los Angeles Times