LEBANON: U.N.agencies and peacekeepers say removing cluster bombs left over from the Israel-Hezbollah war is a big task

Record ID: 356721

  • Title: LEBANON: U.N.agencies and peacekeepers say removing cluster bombs left over from the Israel-Hezbollah war is a big task
  • Date: 9th July 2007
  • Summary: CHINESE PEACEKEEPER PUTTING DE-MINING SUIT CHINESE PEACEKEEPER/ TILT UP TO ANOTHER MAN
  • Embargoed: 24th July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVA30JIE4WIMY2ZAYQ5N6TJICPH5
  • Story Text: One year after a devastating war with Israel that left some one million undetonated cluster bombs lying around Lebanon, both U.N. de-mining agencies and peacekeepers say they are making progress in removing the deadly bomblets. Lebanese injured by exploding cluster bombs say their lives will never be the same.

    When Chinese de-miners, of the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, first entered this abandoned orange field, they were shocked. Tiny unexploded bomblets were everywhere, on the trees, between the shrubs, inside the irrigation canals and under the soil.
    On some days, they can collect up to 600 cluster bombs from the fields near the battered village of Zibkin.
    Today, de-miners from the 255-strong Chinbatt Chinese contingent of the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon), see a huge difference in the situation though it is still far from perfect.
    Major Li ChangZheng, chief of staff of Chinbatt, says his de-miners are now beginning the second phase of their work, known as battle area clearance, which constitutes removing undetonated munitions under the surface of the ground.
    "When we came here first time we saw many cluster bombs on the trees and on the ground," Major Li said.
    "I mean on the surface of the ground. Sometimes one day we can find more than 600 cluster bombs, and now we came to here second time, we just do some works for further searching," said Li.
    The U.N. says Israel last summer dropped around one million cluster bombs on south Lebanon, the centre of unrelentless fighting with Hezbollah guerillas. Most of the bombs were dropped during the last three days of the 34-day fighting which cost the lives of 1,200 Lebanese and 158 Israelis.
    Thirty Lebanese have been killed in cluster bomb explosions since the war ended on August 14 and more than 300 have been maimed. The bomblets that fail to explode on impact when first dropped littered streets and houses and farmlands, a source of living for many villagers in the region. And making life easier for locals, already hard-hit by the war, is one of the main aims of this small Chinese battalion.
    "We want to make sure this area is safe for the local people and that they can carry out the planting on this fields for economic purposes," said Major Li.
    Chinbatt is one of several UNIFIL contingents working on de-mining affected areas of south Lebanon in addition to several U.N. agencies led by the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Centre (UNMACC).
    Dalya Farran, spokeswomen for UNMACC, says their job have been complicated by the lack of strike data available from Israel.
    UNMACC says 122,500 of an estimated 1 million mainly U.S.-made Israeli cluster bombs had been destroyed and the main aim is to clear the 929 identified sites by the end of the year.
    "We don't know how many more cluster bombs there is because we are never given the strike data from the Israeli forces but we think we are progressing pretty fast relatively to the situation," said Farran.
    "Basically our aim is that by the end of this year 2007, we are going to neutralise the problem, which means all the known areas with direct impact on the civilian population would be cleared," she added.
    But for the victims of the cluster bombs, the damage is already done.
    Khodr Mahmoud was once a farmer. Now he spends his days in a wheelchair with the hope that one day enough exercise will allow him to walk again. Mahmoud lost feeling in his legs when a cluster bomb, ignited by a fire he lit to burn weed, exploded in his face and landed him in hospital for six months, unconscious for the first 15 days.
    "I used to go out, to the beach, to the river, for rides, now I can't do all this. I used to have my kids sleep next to me now I can't hug them, take them out, now I can't do that. I wish to carry my son and take him outside, nothing more," said Mahmoud.
    But 16-year old Rasha Zayoun is more bitter. A new prosthetic limb has not eased her suffering and the long hours of physiotherapy have exhausted her. When asked what she felt about the loss of her legs she replies: "I feel sad and miserable."
    Rasha lost her left leg when she caught the ribbon of a cluster bomb that her father accidentally collected while picking thyme leaves. Rasha has not been at school since and says her only wish now is to walk again - on two legs.
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