UN de-miner Ahmed Ullah digs in the rubble for land mines. (David McGuffin/CBC)
DAVID MCGUFFIN
The holy war against land mines in Afghanistan
April 8, 2008
On his knees, bent over almost as if in prayer, Ahmed Ullah sifts carefully, slowly through the dry ground with a trowel. He searches for the seeds of death in a mine field outside Kandahar city. He's been at this job for 18 years. Eighteen years, day in day out, of putting his life at risk to rid Afghanistan of a threat even deadlier than Taliban insurgents.
"This is like a jihad for me," the 48-year-old Ullah says. "A holy war against landmines. I am a Muslim defending my brothers from bad things."
Behind him, in a neat row, are just a few of those bad things he's pulled from the ground: landmines, artillery shells and bullets. After 30 years of conflict, from the Soviet invasion, civil war and now the war against the Taliban, Afghanistan has become one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. An estimated 60 percent of this nation is unsafe to walk on. By local estimates, around 60 Afghans a month are killed or injured by mines and unexploded shells buried in the ground.
No stone unturned
Ullah is working now at a 5 square kilometer site with 9 other colleagues. The work is painstakingly slow. At best they can clear an area the size of a football field each day. They do most of it by hand. The only nod to modern technology is the metal detectors they sweep over the ground. Almost everywhere Ullah points the device; it emits a high pitched whine, pinpointing potential danger. It is rarely silent; this place is riddled with ordnance.
They are clearing a former Soviet military base that was taken over by the Taliban in the 1990's. All around are the twisted metal remains of tanks, armoured personnel carriers and buildings reduced to rubble this area was heavily bombed by the American's in 2001, as they ousted the Taliban from power following the Sept. 11th attacks.
Ullah has seen colleagues killed doing this job, as mines blew up in their faces just meters away from him. He's been lucky so far.
Now, however, there are new threats. At the end of March, five Afghan de-miners were shot dead in Northern Afghanistan. Last year, here in Kandahar, two more were murdered in Panjwayi district in Kandahar, the heartland of Taliban insurgency.
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"We have many enemies," admits Mohammed Daud, of the UN Mine Action Center in Kandahar. He calls the murders of de-miners a terrorist action.
It has forced the UN Mine Action Center to scale its work back dramatically. There are many theories as to why the Taliban target the work of de-miners. Most focus on the fact that the insurgents need to show they can still call the shots in large areas of the countryside.
"Last year, we had 30 teams out in the field in Kandahar province," Daud says. "Now we only have 10." They have drawn back to an area within 10 kilometers of Kandahar.
Never ending struggle
Making matters worse the Taliban continue to plant more and more mines and roadside bombs.
"It's frustrating for me," Ullah says, "because these days they are still planting mines and it's the civilians who are the casualties."
But Ullah and his colleagues continue to plug away. After all this isn't just a jihad, but also livelihood. Canadian funding, $80 million worth over the next four years, helps to pay the salary of some 8500 Afghan de-miners. They are paid an average of $250 a month, in a country where the average salary is just $300 US a year. "It helps me feed my family," Ullah says.
And it gives hope for a better future.
"God willing," Ullah says, "one day Afghanistan will be a normal country."
Until then, the slow, methodical work of the de-miners goes on.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Biography
David McGuffin is the CBC's Africa correspondent, based in Nairobi. Previously, he was bureau chief in Moscow for Feature Story News (FSN), a British broadcast news service with clients that include CBC Radio, National Public Radio, PBS and ABC News. He reported from across the former Soviet Union during the last turbulent years of the Yeltsin administration. He went on to open FSN's Beijing bureau in 2000 before joining CTV News as their Asia correspondent. He also spent two years in Rome, reporting on Vatican and European affairs for ABC News and NBC News. He got his start in journalism at PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in Washington, D.C., where his last job was as foreign editor of the show's award-winning website. An Ottawa native, he graduated from Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., and from the journalism program at the University of King's College in Halifax.
