MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax-AVN) - Over 700 children have been injured by landmines and unexploded ordnance in Chechnya over 10 years, the Moscow UNICEF office's press secretary Anna Chernyakhovskaya told Interfax on Wednesday.
"In 1994 through 2004, 717 children were injured by exploding mines in Chechnya, and 114 of them died," she said.
The figures come from the database of the Information Management System for Mine Action, which records landmine explosions in Chechnya, Chernyakhovskaya said.
Earlier, the Moscow office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs quoted the database as saying that since 1995, Chechnya has registered over 3,000 incidents involving landmines, over 700 of them lethal.
"We believe that landmine safety in Chechnya remains poor and the solution of the problem is one of our priorities," Chernyakhovskaya said.
UNICEF is implementing several landmine safety programs in Chechnya and helping to reintegrate the injured, she said.
Meanwhile, the Chechen leadership says that acts of terrorism staged by the militants, and not munitions remaining in the republic after the hostilities, pose the greatest threat.
"The main damage in the republic is now being caused by explosions and terrorist attacks staged by members of illegal armed formations," State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov told Interfax.
"Sapper units and engineers check all the roads, government offices, schools and hospitals on a daily basis. We have an enormous number of engineer formations involved in organized mine clearing efforts," he said.
About 20% of the farmland in Chechnya remains unused over fears that mines may still be planted there, he said.