Sangaw: Since Haji Abdul Samad lost his leg in a minefield more than 20 years ago, he has unearthed at least 1,000 explosives and become one of Afghanistan’s most experienced de-miners.
“After my accident, I told myself that I had to do work to save lives. I had to clean the rivers, hills, villages,” Samad, who was fighting against the Soviets when he stepped on a mine in 1989, said.
“But I’m not afraid of mines,” he added, at a site being cleared outside the capital Kabul, ahead of the UN International Day for Mine Awareness yesterday.
“I will continue to work as long as even just one remains in the country,” he vowed.
Samad, a father of eight children originally from the southern city of Kandahar, is part of the huge de-mining effort taking place in Afghanistan, which is dotted with minefields after decades of conflict.
Since 1989, when the Soviets left, more than 4,000 people have been killed and 17,000 injured by mines, not including devices laid in the current conflict, according to an estimate by the UN’s Mine Action Coordination Center of Afghanistan (MACCA).
Afghanistan remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world and an average of 42 civilians -- most of them boys under 18 -- are killed or injured each month by mines and other leftover war explosives.
But as the Nato-led combat mission ends next year and international attention towards Afghanistan fades, donor funding for mine clearing is already drying up despite the huge amount of work still to be done.
“We are doing our best. We are appealing for more help,” said Mohammad Sediq Rashid, the head of MACCA, which is $25m short of its $84m annual fundraising budget.
“Donors are aware of the situation. Now it is up to them to respond,” he said, describing the countless remaining mines as a threat to the future development of the country.
De-mining of some description continued even through the civil war and the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, and huge progress has been made in recent years since the Islamic extremists were ousted by a US-led invasion in Afghanistan.
Sangaw hill, where Haji Abdul Samad works for the Danish Demining Group (DDG), was a forward position for Soviet soldiers, who protected themselves with several belts of meticulously hidden mines.
After the Soviets retreated, the Taliban took control of the strategic position, located halfway between Kabul and Bagram airbase, and laid their own explosives in the rough, rocky landscape.
Over the last 30 years at least 13 people have died and 22 have been injured by mines on Sangaw hill alone, the latest casualty losing a leg while herding cattle six months ago.
AFP
