Gorilla’s Guides

This article talks about a problem that you find especially in the border governorates mines or shells left over from previous wars. Often reports like this:

A child who was sheep herding sheep 50 kilometres west of Basra was seriously wounded when he stepped on a landmine (many mines are left over from the war with Iran. Because so many people are extremely poor many people especially children in the border governorates try to take out the copper wiring from mines and sell it to scap mechants see this posting by markfromireland called “Death in a Garbage Dump” - Mohammed.)

Source: Gorilla’s Guides » Blog Archive » News From Irak Summarised From Arabic 2007-02-19

Don’t get reported. They are so common that we only get to hear about them on a “slow” news day.

The article underneat this introduction I have writen  talks about the South. But I think it is very important to say that the problem is in ALL the border governorates.

For example - This report from Aswat Al Iraq gives a good idea of the seriousness of the situation in the Northern Governorates - the Kurdish Regional Government areas:

Dahuk, June 3, (VOI) – Kurdistan comes first out of all Iraq’s regions with the highest number of landmines, the Iraqi Kurdistan anti-landmine authority – Dahuk Branch said on Sunday.

“Authority staff managed to remove 1,532 anti-personnel landmines, 47 anti-armor landmines and 1,074 cluster and fissile bombs in a year,” Eng. Uwainan Youssef told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

“The area cleared of landmines this year reached 321,519 square meters, in addition to 12,978 square meters cleared using sweepers,” he said, adding that 3,251,154 square meters have been examined by bomb squads.

Youssef said 53 villages benefited from the authority’s work, noting that landmines were removed from a large area covering 10 fields where oil pipelines are laid.

“We have not scanned for any internationally banned unexploded bombs but we have detonated several phosphoric bombs, which are highly dangerous, in the area of Bishapour near the Iraqi-Syrian-Turkish border triangle,” said the Iraqi explosives expert.

Source: Aswat Aliraq

According to both Uthman and Mehmet (2 Gorilla’s Guides members who live in the Notth) most of the victims are either poor people who risk their lives to try to open them to sell the copper inside them for scrap or sheep or goat herders who step on a mine. Uthman says that several times he has a young person brought to him but because if the ruggedness of the land it took too long to bring them and they have died.

Haleema

BASRA, 5 June 2007 (IRIN) - Southern based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been providing local children with information about mines and how to prevent accidents in areas still affected by Unexploded Ordnances (UXOs) left over from 25 years of war.

Photo: IRIN

Mine victims in Basra

“We noticed that many children were UXO victims in the southern provinces because of the lack of information from local authorities. Our duty is to make people aware of the dangers of such mines and what to do if they find one,” said Mayada Obeid, a spokesperson for South Peace Organisation, an NGO based in Basra.

“Many international NGOs are working hard to deactivate mines but the process is slow, and with the violence increasing, workers are facing difficulties in clearing the area fast. For these reasons we don’t know when such areas will be safe again so in the meantime we have to stop more people falling victim,” Obeid added.

“At least one to two individuals are victims of UXOs on a daily basis in the southern provinces, with children representing about 70 percent of the victims,” Hassan Farhan, a media officer in the Basra Governorate health department, said.

“There are no precise figures on the number of people who have died from UXOs since the 1980s, but since 2003 there have been at least 560 victims, many of them children,” Hussam Jaffar, a clinician and member of the Basra Union Against War Mines, said. “In most cases there is nothing we can do,” he added.

“It is very difficult to estimate how many landmines there still are in southern Iraq but they run into thousands. If not cleared they could kill or maim thousands,” Farhan said, adding: “The most heavily affected community is the village of Jurf al-Malh, close to the Shat al-Arab waterway near the Iranian border which was on the front line in the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.”

According to recent local NGO studies, there are at least 800,000 metric tonnes of UXOs in and around Basra - mainly unused ammunition, bombs, rockets and mortars discarded by fleeing Iraqi troops.

Very little is known about the impact of uncleared mines and UXOs on local communities. Surveys over the past four years suggest that unexploded cluster bombs are among the threats facing local communities.

Local NGO projects have had some success. Volunteers visit families especially in rural areas and talk to them about how to avoid accidents.

“In addition to the lecture, we offer some printed material in Arabic with telephone numbers to ring if they find a bomb. Children are told what mines consist of and what to do if they find one and we raise awareness of the dangers by showing photos and interviews with victims who have become handicapped,” Obeid said.

as/cb

see also
Insecurity and lack of funds prevent cleansing of polluted sites

and

Death In A Garbage Dump

Theme(s): (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition