IRIN
AFGHANISTAN: About 250,000 landmine victims struggle to make a life
22 November 2004


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KABUL, 22 November (IRIN) - Attn Subscribers, this report is part of a
comprehensive set of features, background reports, interviews and other
resources on landmine-related issues titled 'IRIN Web Special on
Humanitarian Mine Action, published ahead of the 2004 Nairobi Summit on a
Mine Free World. This web special is accessible at
http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/hma/default.asp//

Despite having one of the highest numbers of landmine victims in the
world, Afghanistan has been slow to reintegrate its disabled war victims.
The figures are staggering. The country has more than a million people
living with disabilities, according to the Afghan Ministry of Martyrs and
Disabled (MOMD) and a quarter of them - at least 250,000 - are victims of
landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXOs).

The number is rising, with at least 40 people still falling victim to
mines each month, as people return to villages that used to be on front
lines. But this figure has now fallen considerably compared to the last
few years when 300-400 people became victims of UXOs and mines every
month.

In the capital, Kabul, the crowded office of Nafisa Sultani, a landmine
victim and head of Afghanistan's Disabled Women's Association, has many
tragic stories. "These are all landmine victims who have no place at home
and in society, so they come to our association to help them reintegrate,"
she told IRIN, as she looked over application forms from women disabled by
landmines, seeking assistance.

"Surgical and prosthesis support is the first and the last [official]
assistance a landmine victim gets in this country. There is nothing going
on to help the reintegration of these most vulnerable people into normal
life."

While there are several national and international organisations and a
government ministry with mandates to assist the disabled, Sultani believes
there is little happening to help them reintegrate. "Despite hundreds of
millions of dollars of international aid for Afghanistan, the disabled
community has not been addressed."

As Afghanistan already has a high rate of unemployment, finding jobs for
mine victims is very difficult. Even though the government has passed a
decree that disabled people must comprise five percent of every ministry's
staff, "that has not been implemented", Sultani said.

Ahmad Fawad lost both his legs above the knee in a mine explosion. He was
refused a security guard's job with an aid agency even after he passed the
interview, when the employer was told about Fawad's disability.

"I obtained a month's training course on the security guard profession,
but I still can't find a job because some people think that when you lose
part of your body your mind is also deficient," he told IRIN bitterly.

The government is paying 300 afghanis (about US $7) disability pension
monthly. Some distribution of land for shelter or monthly food items
through aid agencies for disabled families also takes place.

But Zarina, an UXO victim, said often disabled ex-combatants are
prioritised over civilians. "Just recently there was land distribution for
the disabled, but we were told 'this is for ex-officers and soldiers, not
civilian victims'," the 20-year- old, who lost her left leg due to a
mortar bomb explosion, told IRIN.

She added that literacy training was essential for every disabled person
to make them more employable. "Meanwhile handicraft training and other
vocational training will also be very helpful to help them become
self-sufficient."

The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) is running the largest
orthopaedic centres in major Afghan cities providing limb prostheses and
physiotherapy. According to Alberto Cairo, head of ICRC orthopaedic
projects in Afghanistan, the committee is running vocational training, a
back-to-school programme, micro-credit schemes and a job centre to promote
reintegration. "Disabled people need a lot more than a plastic leg, or to
learn to walk. They have to get back into society, find a role, and find
dignity," Cairo told IRIN.

Cairo said, in Afghanistan, where life was hard for everyone, the disabled
needed more help. "What kind of help? Schooling and work to give them a
job. Or a loan to start up a small business -difficult, but possible."
Meanwhile, under what he called "positive discrimination", most of his
employees were disabled and hundreds of others found jobs through the ICRC
disabled job centre.

But despite what the ICRC and others are doing, Mohammad Razi, a programme
officer for the leading UN agency supporting disability programmes, said
there was very little happening to help the disabled and mine victims to
reintegrate. "Funding problems, no interest from the donors, no attention
by the Afghan government, security problems in the country and lack of
technical personnel in the field of disability are the main reasons," Razi
told IRIN.

Afghan society still has a long way to go in accepting mine victims, said
Haji Ahmad Shah Azimy, a member of the Afghanistan Disabled Association
who lost both hands in a mine accident while working as a shepherd north
of Kabul. "Neither in the public services nor in the private sector can
you find a facility for the disabled," the father of six added.

Azimy said there were no special services for people with wheelchairs, for
example. "A disabled guy cannot use public transport, nor is there a
facility for us to cross the road." Disabled access to public buildings,
including the relevant ministry, was non-existent and things were even
worse outside the capital, he said.

The prevalent attitude among Afghans is that those maimed by mines are
unworthy ex-fighters responsible for all the destruction in Kabul, rather
than innocent victims who need public support and understanding. Victim
support is part of the Ottawa convention, which the Afghan government
signed up to in 2002. "I wouldn't agree that we are not assisting them.
The government is well aware of the scale of the problem and is trying to
assist victims as much as possible," Mohammad Haidar Reza, Afghan deputy
foreign minister and chairperson of demining activities in Afghanistan,
told IRIN.

"But because of the limited resources that the government has, it cannot
take care of all of their [the disabled] needs," he maintained.


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