Clearing the lethal legacy of the past
THE bloody accounts of ongoing conflict in Iraq are a plethora of disturbing reports and images of a war ravaged country but there are also inspiring tales of brave communities struggling to get back on their feet.
Iraq was once regarded as the cradle of civilisation, a place where writing and law were first established.
Today its location amid an evolving Middle East is more important than ever. It is the focus of a struggle between the competing branches of Islam, a nation whose rich natural resources are being carved up by eager foreign companies from across the globe, a monument to ill-fated and untempered Western interference, the frontline between “interests” in neighbouring Iran and Syria, and a stage for the cameras of the world in the age of 24- hour news.
Religious, political and military interests feed on each other to make Iraq and its provinces more intensely watched today than ever before.
Having endured three decades of wars, many of its 32 million people are piecing fragments of their shattered lives back together: Small businesses are springing up, farmers and families who fled are returning to their lands, and foreign money on the back of oil exploration is pouring into some parts.
Nearly 20m landmines were planted in its soils over the years, most during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, making it the second most mined country in the world after Afghanistan.
Thousands of Iraqi citizens have been injured and killed, many of them innocent children and farmers, after falling foul of these maiming machines which are often just buried a few inches beneath the soil.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein not only planted them to protect the country’s borders during his attempted invasion of Iran but also during fighting with US forces in the two Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003.
Today a generation of amputees are a sad reminder of the savagery of war. Both young and old, they have survived not only landmine explosions but continued violence on Iraq’s streets.
Unknown to many Irish people, Ireland has helped lead the way in an attempt to reclaim and clear Iraq’s contaminated lands.
The Irish Government has donated about €12.8m in funding to humanitarian causes for Iraqi citizens since 2006.
Over €3m of these funds have gone directly to an international NGO called Mines Advisory Group (MAG), who are the lead humanitarian de-mining group operating in northern Iraq.
Employing hundreds of Iraqi citizens who daily inch their way through fields and disarm landmines, MAG also runs mine and arms-risk education programmes in schools, liaise with local religious leaders about hazards for communities and even use de-mining dogs to help clear lands contaminated with the hidden killing devices.
The group has been responsible for the removal and destruction of over 161,000 landmines and about 1.8m unexploded devices and munitions in Iraq since 2003.
Irish funding has directly gone to clearing 5m square metres of affected Iraqi lands in recent years.
However, with the final withdrawal of US troops from the war-torn nation in recent weeks, there are fears that a possible security vacuum will allow terrorists and militant fundamentalists a chance to destabilise any progress made in rebuilding Iraq.
Bomb attacks in Baghdad killed 70 people only weeks ago, and smaller attacks continue. That attack in Baghdad, as Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore declares in this two-day series, shows that “violent terrorists are still determined to exploit the fragile political situation in Iraq”.
And it is evident that the scramble for oil, political power and religious supremacy continues here, so much so that some cities and parts are being called the “Jerusalems” of Iraq as groups vie for control.
With the country verging on civil war, its citizens must also cope with a graveyard of burnt our war machines and mountains of tank shells, cluster bombs, landmines and unexploded munitions that still litter its towns and villages and kill innocent inhabitants.
* This series was carried out with the help of the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund, supported by Irish Aid
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