LIBYA: Unexploded mortar and cluster munitions in Misrata are causing problems for the new anti-Gaddafi authorities

Record ID: 359240

  • Title: LIBYA: Unexploded mortar and cluster munitions in Misrata are causing problems for the new anti-Gaddafi authorities
  • Date: 27th July 2011
  • Summary: PART OF MORTAR ROUND HEADQUARTERS OF MISRATA'S ORDNANCE DISPOSAL COMMITTEE, UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE VARIOUS UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE CONTAINER STORING UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE GATHERED FROM RESIDENTIAL AREAS VARIOUS UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ALI AL-HISH, MEMBER OF MISRATA'S ORDNANCE DISPOSAL COMMITTEE, SAYING: "We have co-ordination and co-operation with the Misrata
  • Embargoed: 11th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVA9S3DA4QAX3AIXTGUFAOPJKA0R
  • Story Text: As Misrata's young fighters spend their days at the frontline battling pro-Gaddafi forces, remnants of weapons left behind following the city's devastating siege continue to threaten civilian life.
    For a city of over 500,000 people, the scale of the destruction in the city is enormous. Every street corner has its own scars and coming across ordnance is an everyday reality for many of the city's residents.
    Fifteen year-old boy Mohammed Diab recollects his personal experience with a mortar round in late April that changed his life forever.
    "We heard a mortar hit the wall out in the street, then I took it out with my hand and brought it into our garden where it exploded in my hand," he said.
    Despite his serious injury, Diab was discharged from the hospital after only five days to make room for fighters coming in from the frontline. Doctors told him he had hope of receiving a prosthetic limb, but only after the conflict in Libyaand Misrata returns to normality.
    "I didn't imagine it would explode as it had already exploded in the wall. I didn't expect it to blow up again," added Diab in a quiet tone.
    Ali al-Hish is a member of the Ordnance Disposal Committee, he shows a vast range of munitions in a long container in the courtyard of his group's headquarters - a building which hasn't escaped the conflict either, its outside walls covered in holes caused by exploding munitions such as tank shells.
    "We have co-ordination and co-operation with the Misrata branch of the Red Crescent. We have intensified our distribution of leaflets and the brothers in the Red Crescent have been active in giving awareness lectures as well as visits to schools and social housing areas," he said.
    "The biggest problem is cluster bombs. These cluster bombs are small in size and are brightly coloured and children always see things that are easy to spot and start to move it from place to place so they tend to explode against children the most."
    Posters illustrating the most common types of ordnance found in the city are displayed outside the building to help build awareness and help locals contacting the committee identify what type of ordnance they have found.
    Hish estimates the number of munitions found by the five teams of volunteers who operate in the Committee to be around a few thousand. He says most ordnance is destroyed on location while some is retrieved.
    Hish says Misrata needs outside expertise to deal with the clearance of the remaining ordnance.
    Officials at the Misrata Ordnance Disposal Committee say around 80 percent of the ordnance left behind by street battles in the city's urban area have been cleared. Fierce fighting raged for months as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sought to crush an uprising in the city against his four-decade rule.
    The fighting lasted throughout the spring until rebels, aided by NATO, managed to push pro-Gaddafi forces out of the city.
    However, the effort will not end anytime soon. Mortar shells and GRAD rockets continue to pound the city on a near daily basis.
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