ITF responded on the invitation of Dr. Francisco Santos, Vice President of Colombia

The delegation of ITF together with Institute of Repulbic of Slovenia for Rehabilitation responded on the invitation of Dr. Francisco Santos Calderon, Vice President of Colombia as well as of Colombian “Observatorio  de minas antipersonal” and visited Bogota between 31 June and 5 July 2006. The initiative for cooperation with ITF was offered by Dr. Dimitrij Rupel, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia at occasion of the official visit of Ms. Caroline Barco Isakson, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia in Slovenia last year.

The purpose of the ITF visit are the efforts of Columbian authorities to reduce the number of mine victims in this country. The delegation met Colombian national and local authorities as well as with main actors on the field of demining in this country. This country registered 1300 mine victims in 2005. Colombia is the country with largest number of mine victims in the world, and the number of victims is still growing every year. The cause is a bad information system of the local population about the demining fields in their nearest neighbourhood and forests of Colombia.

ITF will prepare review of the visit and study the possibility of programs on the field of mine victim’s rehabilitation as well as on the field of mine awareness. The step forward for ITF would take the interest of donators to support those programs in Colombia. (Picture: Mr. Iztok Hocevar, ITF-Head of Department for International Relations, Maria Victoria Garcia de Santos, wife of Vice President of Colombia, Mr. Goran Gancik, ITF-Director, Dr. Francisco Santos Calderon, Vice President of Colombia and Mr. Robert Cugelj, Institute of Republic of Slovenia for Rehabilitation- Director)