MANAGUA Nicaragua said on Saturday it had finally cleared its southern border with Costa Rica of thousands of land mines planted during its civil war in the 1980s, Reuters said. The Defense Ministry said army units had removed 5,583 anti-personnel mines along the border over the past 40 months in a $1 million project financed by the European Union, Denmark and the Organization of American States. The leftist Sandinista government that took power in a 1979 popular uprising planted mines along the border with Costa Rica as part of its campaign against the forces of Eden Pastora, a hero of the revolution who later turned against the Sandinistas.

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