2012-12-20 11:10:14

Afghanistan’s Killing Fields: one victim tells his story


(Vatican Radio) Nine little girls under the age 12 were killed by a landmine explosion in Afghanistan earlier this week and two of their friends were wounded. They were collecting firewood to help their families ward off the winter cold. Though their loss is a devastating tragedy, these girls are just part of an alarming statistic: some 60 people every day are maimed or killed by landmines or explosive remnants of war in Afghanistan every month.

Tracey McClure spoke to Firoz Alizada, chief campaigner for the Geneva based International Campaign to Ban Landmines about the killing fields of Afghanistan.

Listen to her report: RealAudioMP3

An Afghani himself, Firoz knows all about the horrors of landmines. As a child, he dreamt of becoming a policeman or a pilot – a dream suddenly shattered when he lost both of his legs to a landmine. In order to receive treatment and proper care, he had to leave his family, his friends and his village. The rough terrain there meant he could never go back to live his life with them in a wheelchair or with artificial limbs. But Firoz considers himself one of the lucky ones. He was able to receive treatment and a pair of new legs from the International Committee of the Red Cross. He got an education and this job. So many in remote areas of Aghanistan are not so lucky.
Ever since that fateful day in 1996, he has been determined to support his fellow victims and campaign for the day when these deadly ordinances will become only a nightmare of the past.

“(Landmines) have been a huge problem over the past decade and are still a big problem,” he says. “ It’s not only threatening the children who go to school or the farmers who use their land; it’s also hampering the development of the country.”

“The mine action operators have so far managed to get rid of landmines in about 60% of the land that was contaminated so we still have 40% of the land that has to be cleared.”

“A country like Afghanistan spends around 100 million U.S. dollars a year to tackle this problem. Of course, the money comes from the international community but if there (were no) landmines, this money would have been used for hospitals, schools and clinics. It’s a huge amount of money.”

The landmine which killed the nine girls this week in Afghanistan, Firoz says, was from the nine year Soviet war that began in late December 1979.

“That’s an example of how resistant these mines are – that they wait for thirty, forty years before somebody (sets it off) or gets killed on it.”

Firoz explains that there are some 60,000 landmine survivors in Afghanistan. “I’m one of them,” he says, “but there are more unfortunately. Most of…or some of them do not survive, do not get the medical support, first aid and rehabilitation to survive. So many people that have hit landmines, they have passed away.”

Firoz describes “the special trauma that comes right after the landmine accidents. It’s just a tragedy for survivors, people with disabilities and their families to cope with their lives and to survive and to go back to school, to go go back to get a job, to work. It’s just so hard.”

But the government, he says, can do more. “The government has not done much (to support) landmine victims or ammunitions victims or (their plight) is not considered a national priority which is a pity. There has been some improvement recently but not enough in comparison to the extreme needs of landmine survivors and their family members.”

“Landmines totally changed my life…but I am one of the luckiest persons among survivors because I could overcome some of the challenges…what I dream to do is to campaign against landmines to avoid more people getting killed by this indiscriminate weapon.”

Firoz hopes recent Afghan government discussions on the landmine issue will “result in effective measures, especially to provide assistance to remote villages.”

“My story is probably a unique story among survivors,” he says, “but I know that there are thousands of survivors that are suffering every day, in every moment.”


Photo: Afghan volunteers carry a body of a girl, who was killed when a landmine exploded while she was collecting firewood, into a vehicle in Jalalabad on December 17, 2012.







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