ITF’s Capitol Hill Awards Reception

International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF) together with Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Washington organized at the premises of the US Congress a plaque award ceremony for 33 US Congress representatives, who have helped ITF with their ongoing support to achieve outstanding results in the field of mine action in the region of Southeast Europe. The continuing support of 21 House Representatives and 12 Senators has helped ITF to meet its set targets by 2009, resulting in 4 mine- safe countries in the region of SE Europe - Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Serbia.
The United States of America represent one of the most important ITF donors and the most important partner in solving the mine problem in South Eastern Europe.  Since the establishment of the ITF in 1998 United States have contributed more than 126 million USD to ITF. The US Congress allocated the first matching fund donation of 28 million USD for demining and mine victims assistance in May 1998.  In addition to demining programs the United States also support mine victims assistance programs, enabling the rehabilitation of nearly a thousand mine victims, offering support to demining structures and training numerous experts in the field of mine action.
The ITF Director, Mr Dorijan Marši? pointed out at the ceremony: "The purpose of today's ceremony is to convey a special appreciation to the long-time supporters of ITF in the US Congress, who enabled ITF to become one of the leading organizations in the field of mine action in the region of SE Europe. At the same time we wish that this ceremony draws attention to the ongoing landmine problem in the region of SE Europe and to the new ITF strategic course which will extend the current operations to other geographical and theme areas which could be attained among other, by continuous support of the United States.«
Demining remains one of the key conditions for socio-economic development in mine contaminated countries, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, which are among the most mine contaminated countries in the world. At the same time the current economic situation in these countries do not allow them to fully assume the mine action funding, consequently requiring financial assistance from the donor community and organizations such as the ITF.
A long-time support of the U.S. to ITF confirms that the ITF, with its good results, has strengthened the confidence of its donors and became a reference institution in the field of mine action. More than 102 million square meters of mine contaminated area in Southeastern Europe and South Caucasus have been cleared through ITF, while  more than 1,000 mine victims went through  rehabilitation  and more than 82,000 children and adults in the region South eastern Europe annually attended MRE programs carried out with the help of ITF. ITF has trained more than 800 experts in the field of humanitarian demining, rehabilitation and management in mine action. For this purpose ITF gathered together over 301 million USD so far.
The result of ITF’s success is also a new ITF strategy for period 2009-2013, which expanded the operation to other geographical and subject areas. ITF recognizes that as the impact from landmines and UXO in SE Europe becomes less severe, there is a growing need to address other post-conflict challenges (such as Conventional Weapons Destruction programs), and to combat violence and terrorism stemming from the illicit ownership and use of small arms and light weapons (SALW). Such challenges pose a potential threat to human security just as serious as the danger from landmines and UXO. Despite the new strategy, the primary task for the ITF is still raising and managing funds from public and private donors and their implementation in mine action programs focusing on the successful completion of the work in the region of SE Europe.