PEACE-keeping soldier Joseph Clough discovered the shocking reality of landmines when he was sent to Bosnia.

Joseph, 21, from Burnley, is half way through a six-month tour of duty in the country's north-west with the King's Royal Hussars.

Based in the war-scarred, one-street town of Baraci, he longs to go hiking in the hills - but to do that would be to risk life and limb.

"The countryside here is superb," said Joseph, a former Towneley High School pupil whose parents, Mick and Julie, live in Burnley. "It is a shame you can't walk about because of the mines.

"I'd like to just be able to put on a backpack and go up into the mountains."

Joseph joined the army two years ago and began his tour of Bosnia as his brother, Michael, left the country after completing a tour with 32 Engineer Regiment.

Joseph has just finished a training course as a Challenger tank radio operator, and his goal is to become a tank commander. As part of the 5,000-strong British contingent in the NATO stabilisation force, tank crews help to reassure residents by patrolling the twisting lanes and small villages of a sparsely populated, rural and mountainous landscape.

His base is a town where all the buildings have been damaged, and the only structure of note is the Dayton Bar, a tiny bar at the side of the road named after the Dayton peace agreement.

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