“CBU-470â€, a grove of olive and citrus trees, was the site of a
cluster bomb accident involving a civilian after the war. DCA’s Battle Area Clearance operation there removed 33 more bombs in 2008, making the land safe to use again.
DanChurchAid began to address the problem only a few months after the end of the conflict, and its Battle Area Clearance (BAC) teams continue their work to this day.
A BAC team consists of 13
Lebanese men and women, trained and supervised by DanChurchAid international advisers to employ state-of-the-art magnetic locators, systematic search procedures, and rigid safety precautions to comb
contaminated areas in search of the deadly bombs which are deceptively similar in size and shape to D-cell batteries.
The areas surrounding the town of Qaqaiyet el Jiser, in Nabatiyeh Province, better
known as “Area 6†to those in the field, is one focus of DanChurchAid’s clearance work.
A breathtaking view of the Litani River and its neighboring olive groves and resorts,
illustrating a typical scenario: natural wonders made treacherous to enjoy and agricultural land rendered inaccessible. This photo was taken before DanChurchAid’s clearance of the
area.
In October 2008, DanChurchAid’s BAC Team 5 completed work on a strike zone in Area 6 referred to as CBU-470. An otherwise picturesque spot nestled in a valley of
olive and citrus trees, CBU-470 took Team 5 a total of 188.5 work hours to clear 64,735 square meters - that’s about the size of nine football pitches. All told, 33 submunitions were
found and destroyed, leaving the land safe to use again. Checking up on the impact of clearanceIn May of 2009, DanChurchAid personnel returned to the area to interview
beneficiaries and to conduct a Post-Clearance Impact Assessment. Their aim was to determine how the community was using the land since it was cleared.
Meeting with the landowner and a woman who was
seriously injured in the leg by a cluster bomb while working the land after the war, DanChurchAid personnel learned that the cleared area is prized by the family living off its olive and citrus
groves. The five direct beneficiaries also depend on honey production from the beekeeping they carry out on the land, and are grateful to be able to access these resources again without fear. A place for people to enjoy themselvesOf course, the effect that unexploded bombs littering the countryside have on the civilian population’s quality of life
is not limited to agricultural production. Prior to clearing CBU-470, DanChurchAid’s BAC teams also made safe a total of 38,800 square meters along the Litani river which, besides
containing important olive terraces for local growers, are also the site of many popular river resorts where people gather to relax and celebrate together.
In addition to enabling a family-run
business with its 20 employees to continue to operate and contribute to the local economy, DanChurchAid’s clearance of areas CBU-586 and 587 ensured the safety and peace of mind of
the thousands of people visiting the resort every year for family gatherings, weddings, and other festivities.Left with no choiceAt the close of their assessment,
DanChurchAid personnel interviewed one local man who told them why he and his neighbors had entered some contaminated groves even before clearance teams could arrive to help. The choice was between
either risking life and limb to harvest amidst the deadly bomblets or to stay clear and lose their entire crop, he explained - that is to say, they had no choice. Need
for increased resourcesThat troubling reality reflects the dire need to clear hard-hit areas as quickly as possible, which cannot be achieved by speeding up the work of those on the ground but by
increasing the overall resources available for the clearance response.
For more information about the DCA programme in Lebanon and for possibilities of financially supporting the clearance activities
please contact Programme Officer Signe Nørmose at +45 33 18 77 47 or mail sno@dca.dk
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
An Israeli security guard watches as a Palestinian woman holds up her child in front of a house during a rally in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem August 15, 2009, ...
