Isolating the Taliban: How young landmine victims may be collateral
damage
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[July 07, 2022]
By Charlotte Greenfield and Mohammad Yunus Yawar
QAFAS KALAY, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A
group of Afghan children were grazing sheep in fields near the village
of Bolak Wandi in eastern Helmand when they spotted a metallic object
half-buried in the ground. Crowding round excitedly, they argued over
who had found it first and who could sell it for scrap.
The mortar shell exploded, killing one child instantly.
Three more children died from their wounds as they were taken to
hospital by Taliban fighters who had been nearby. Another passed away on
arrival.
"I don't blame anyone," said Haji Abdul Salam, the father of two of the
children. He tries to focus on comforting his wife, who cries for her
lost children.
"This mortar could have been left over from the Americans or the Soviet
Union. However, not only our area, but all of Afghanistan should be
cleared of this problem."
That mission has become more difficult.
The Taliban's return to power last summer, ending their 20-year
insurgency, should have helped de-mining efforts, with swathes of
territory that were off-limits during the fighting finally accessible.
Yet foreign governments have now frozen development aid to the Afghan
government, unwilling to use their taxpayers' money to prop up the
Taliban, an Islamist group that restricts women's rights and has been at
war with much of the West since harbouring Osama bin Laden after the
9/11 attacks.
One unintended consequence: In a previously unreported development, the
Afghan government agency that oversees mine clearance told Reuters it
had lost its roughly $3 million funding and laid off about 120 staff in
April - the majority of the organisation - because it couldn't pay
salaries.
"All the sanctions have severely affected us," said Sayed Danish, deputy
head of the agency, the Directorate of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC).
"We can't do strategic work, which is our main responsibility."
The cost to ordinary Afghans of isolating the Taliban, who say they are
being unfairly treated, was also highlighted after an earthquake last
month left thousands homeless and the health system under huge strain,
sparking some calls for a new approach to the group.
The loss of de-mining funds could have profound consequences for the
country of 40 million people which is one of the most heavily mined
places on Earth after four decades of war.
Almost 80% of civilian casualties from "explosive remnants of war" are
children, the U.N. mining agency estimates, partly due to their
curiosity as well as their regular role in collecting scrap metal to
sell to bolster families' incomes.
In the seven months to March, about 300 Afghan children were killed or
maimed by landmines and other unexploded devices, according to the
U.N.'s children's agency.
The five children from Bolak Wandi, four boys and a girl aged between
five and 12, died in April.
THOUSANDS OF DEVICES
Foreign governments have exempted humanitarian aid from their freeze,
and hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing into the country,
allowing aid organizations to function.
But the limitations of such funds – to meet urgent needs and aimed at
bypassing the government – are becoming apparent, with many economists
and experts saying the population will suffer without robust state
services and a viable banking sector.
DMAC's funding is part of roughly $9 billion a year in international
development and security aid that the World Bank says been frozen since
the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, which relies on foreign donors
for the bulk of its budget.
The de-mining work itself is largely carried out by aid groups, but DMAC
provides strategic guidance to prioritise high-danger areas and maps the
nationwide de-mining work to avoid duplicating efforts, according to
Danish and aid workers.
"Mine action works best when national-level coordination and oversight
is in place," said Søren Sørensen, head of Humanitarian Disarmament and
Peacebuilding for Afghanistan at the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), an
international organisation.
"At the moment all that is being done is that we select areas from an
outdated list," he added. "That is not effective and is not addressing
the most serious hazards."
Sørensen stares out of the window of a car on the way back to the
capital Kabul from Qafas Kalay, a small village in the eastern district
of Khaki Jabbar, an area once used by Soviet forces as a military
outpost and which more recently saw heavy fighting as the Taliban took
the area.
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Ahmad Zia, 17, who lost his leg in a magnetic mine in a car, is seen
with his uncle at the Red Cross rehabilitation center in Kabul,
Afghanistan, April 9, 2022. REUTERS/Ali Khara
Hundreds of devices have been detonated in the
vicinity but almost 40,000 square miles still need to cleared.
Across Afghanistan, thousands of unexploded devices lie in wait, the
U.N. de-mining agency says.
"We finally have this amazing window of opportunity to actually
clear this country," Sørensen said. "There is so much we could do."
On a hillside outside Qafas Kalay, about 20 miles east of Kabul, DRC
mine-clearance workers in protective vests and visors peer at the
ground and sweep detectors.
They place a small flag on a barely visible device found nestled in
the dirt - a Soviet anti-personnel mine - and then connect it by
wires that run hundreds of metres to a small makeshift control
centre where the countdown begins. The device blows up and the
de-miners return to their painstaking work.
A few miles away, children on the doorstep of a mosque pore over
cartoons that show different kinds of explosive devices and the
kinds of places they might be hidden.
Their tutor tells them what to do if they spot one.
"We don't go to that place and we report it to our parents," the
children repeat back enthusiastically.
The community nearby is already eking out patches of de-mined land
to farm wheat and fruit and working on irrigation projects,
developments that could help alleviate the growing hunger crisis in
Afghanistan.
'THE PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING'
Asked about the cash crunch and layoffs at DMAC, the U.S. Department
of State said it was continuing to support humanitarian de-mining in
Afghanistan by directly funding NGO partners. A spokesperson said it
had provided $720 million in overall humanitarian assistance to
Afghans since last August.
Germany's foreign minister said in June there was no room to
recognise the Taliban as a legitimate government until it changed
policies on issues such as women's rights.
Foreign capitals want to squeeze the Taliban's finances to pressure
the group to lift restrictions on the rights of girls and women to
education, freedom of expression and employment.
Since returning to power, the group has kept girls' secondary
schools closed and demanded women cover their faces in public and
only leave home with a male relative or husband.
Some people have also accused the Taliban of reprisal attacks
against former members of the Western-backed administration,
including soldiers and intelligence officials.
The Taliban has said it would respect human rights and promised to
investigate allegations of revenge killings, saying they have put an
amnesty against former foes in place.
The Taliban also says it is addressing issues including girls'
secondary education and has called on Washington to unfreeze
billions of dollars of central bank assets, saying they belong to
the Afghan people and the country needs a functioning banking system
to alleviate poverty.
Late last month, a temporary deal was reached when DMAC agreed that
the United Nations could set up an office in the country for about
six months. But with funding for the stopgap U.N. regulator half of
that of the Afghan agency before the Taliban takeover, it has only
employed about 30 from the original 120 staff, according to Paul
Heslop, Chief of the U.N. Mine Action Programme in Afghanistan.
He added that for long-term sustainability, the responsibility of
coordinating de-mining should be with a state and not an outside
humanitarian body like the U.N. agency.
"We're in a situation where we have a government that's not
recognised," said Heslop, adding that the lack of funding was "very
difficult".
"Even if you pay people they can't get the money out of the banks,
it's very difficult for the people of Afghanistan at the moment,
they are really suffering."
(Charlotte Greenfield reported from Qafas Kalay and Mohammad Yunus
Yawar reported from Kabul; Additional reporting by Kabul newsroom
and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Editing by Mike Collett-White
and Pravin Char)
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