SYRIA: Mines in areas of the Golan Heights which Israel handed back to Syria in 1974 continue to injure civilians going about their daily business

Record ID: 279562

  • Title: SYRIA: Mines in areas of the Golan Heights which Israel handed back to Syria in 1974 continue to injure civilians going about their daily business
  • Date: 25th January 2008
  • Summary: (MER1) QUNAITERA, SYRIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF THE CHILD SOUFIAN NAZZAL SITTING ON HOSPITAL BED WITH HAND BANDAGED DOCTORS CLEANING NAZZAL'S HAND WITH IODINE CLOSE OF NAZZAL'S FACE AS HE WINCES NAZZAL LYING ON BED AND HIS MOTHER SITTING BESIDE HIM CLOSE OF NAZZAL'S MOTHER VARIOUS OF DOCTOR BANDAGING NAZZAL'S HAND (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SOUFIAN NAZZAL, A LANDMINE VICT
  • Embargoed: 9th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA536C1WB3CFD9UVH54TMIG8LF6
  • Story Text: Near the Syrian town of Qunaitera, just inside the ceasefire line separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria, civilians still fall victim to mines Israel planted in the area before it handed parts of the Golan back to Syria in 1974 as part of a ceasefire agreement.
    One of the latest victims is Soufian Nazzal, a 13-year-old school boy who picked up what he thought was a pen during a break from classes.

    "I left during school break, and I walked along the road for about two meters. I found a pen that had a string. I pulled the string and it exploded," said Nazzal.
    The pen-like object was a small mine and Nazzal lost several fingers in the explosion.
    In 2004, the governor of Qunaitera set up a governmental committee to spread landmine awareness in the Golan, but the ordinance still claims victims.
    Syrian medical officials say 524 landmine casualties in the Qunaitera area of the Golan have been reported since 2005. Some 200 of those injured died.
    Qunaitera resident Omar al-Louheibi was blinded when a landmine exploded near him. In 2005, he set up the General Society for the victims of landmines, a charity which gives financial aid to victims of landmines in the Golan.

    "We offer aid to victims ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 (Syrian) pounds (about 20 to 60 U.S. dollars) a month, according to the victim's familial situation. We give those who are unemployed or disabled 3,000 pounds, but we give those who can still work 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 pounds -- according to extent of their disabilities," al-Louheibi said.
    Syria launched a war in 1973 that failed to regain the Golan but it won back small parts of the plateau a year later according to a ceasefire agreement that has held firmly since.
    The deal gave the Golan's capital Qunaitera back to Syria, but only after Israeli forces blew up the city's houses and buildings. Today Qunaitera remains in rubble as evidence of what Hafez al-Assad called "Israeli barbarity". Some original Qunaitera residents and others live in new residential areas just outside the destroyed town.
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