20/11/2022
“If you ever come across anything suspicious like this item, please do not pick it up, contact your local law e enforcement agency for assistance”.
Sinan Mahmoud | Khaled Yacoub Oweis | Taylor Heyman-Baghdad, Amman, London
As signatories to the Mine Ban Treaty prepare to meet in the 25th year of the ban, thousands in the Middle East continue to deal with the daily trauma of wounds caused by landmines. The treaty, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines, has been signed and ratified by more than 130 nations. More than 55 million stockpiled anti-personnel mines have been destroyed and extensive clearance operations carried out.
‘My life changed for ever’
Syria has not signed the treaty. The country was found by the Landmine Monitor 2022 report released on Thursday to have recorded the highest number of casualties from landmines in 2021 — 1,227 people. UN records show that in 2020 there was an average of 76 blasts involving ordnance in the country every day — equal to an explosion every 20 minutes. Ahmad Omar, 21, is one of the victims of landmines in the country. The eldest son of nine siblings, he was helping his father to till the land near Bishiriyeh village in Idlib province in August 2015 when he was wounded. “I grabbed a round metal thing from the soil and there was a shepherd not that far from me, but he still recognised what it was,” Omar said. “He yelled that it was a bomb and I must throw it away at once.” But it was too late. The remnant of a cluster bomb exploded, taking his hand with it and leaving his chest bloody and littered with shrapnel. “My life changed for ever,” said Mr Omar, who was born with a severe speech impediment. “I could no longer do what I can only do here, which is help my father farm the land.” Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime lost control of Idlib in 2013-2014 amid the country’s civil war. Residents say the area was frequently bombed by Syrian warplanes at the time, not for direct military purposes, but to stop farmers from working the land where olives, figs and pistachios are grown.
A legacy of conflict
Afghan are also struggling to come to terms with the effect of mines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs) on their lives. The Landmine Monitor 2022 report found the country, a signatory of the 1997 mine treaty, recorded more than 1,000 casualties in every year of the past decade. Hussain Ahmadi lost both legs to an anti-personnel mine in 1990. He now leads awareness campaigns about the dangers of mines and helps to rehabilitate the wounded. Mr Ahmadi, executive director of the Afghan Landmine Survivors Organisation, told The National that the situation in Afghanistan had worsened since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. “It is an incredibly difficult time for organisations like ours,” he said. The group used to have about 20 employees, but now relies on volunteers. Groups it once worked with have left the country because of security or funding problems.
Photo-Source: thenationalnews.com
Biography of a Bomb
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