The event called 'Evening for Safe Steps', which was a fund-raising dinner for collecting donations for removing mines in Karlovac County, was organised on Friday evening in Zagreb by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Croatia, in partnership with the Embassy of Canada, Embassy of the United States of America and International Trust Fund (ITF).
The removal of mines from Croatia is a praiseworthy aim which should be accomplished not only because of humanitarian but also because of economic reasons, U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, James B. Foley, said at the event.
Foley said that the U.S. Administration annually allocated USD 2 million for demining and mine victims assistance in Croatia. So far, the USA has donated about USD 27 million.
The ambassador praised Croatia for earmarking more funds for this purpose than any other country in the world.
Canadian Ambassador Edwin Loughlin, whose country is at the helm of a global campaign to ban the production, storage and use of land-mines, wished that Croatia may become a country cleared of mines.
He recalled that 100,000 mines, left over from the 1991-1995 Homeland Defence War, were still strewn over 887 square kilometres in Croatia.
The head of the AmCham in Croatia, Don Markovic, said that he was expecting that some HRK 500,00 would be raised at this ninth humanitarian gala evening for mine free Croatia.
This event was previously known as the Night of a Thousand Dinners.
From 2001 to 2009, HRK 4.3 million was collected within this project.
