The deadly minefield of Deir Mimas

Source: Daily Star, 28-11-2006
TYRE: The village of Deir Mimas, with its 600-year-old graveyard, sits along a breathtaking ridge strewn with ancient olive groves located a few kilometers from the "Israeli" border. It faces South Lebanon`s historic, craggy Beaufort Castle - a focal point for fierce fighting through the ages - while the Litani River flows through the valley between them. Occupied by "Israel" until 2000, it is Deir Mimas` hilltop vantage point that has again brought a deadly conflict to its doorstep, with cluster bombs and a newly discovered "Israeli" minefield contaminating its fertile land.
"The next thing I know I hear ringing in my ears and I think to myself, I`ve been hit," says David Alderson, formerly of the British Royal Engineers, from his hospital bed in Sidon. "I scream to [my colleague] Damir [Paradzik] that I`ve been hit and that I was down and then I tried to get [my supervisor] Tony [Thompson] on the phone. And as I`m on the phone to Tony within seconds Damir was hit."
Alderson is a supervisor for the Armor Group - a British commercial company contracted by the UAE to clear cluster munitions in the area. He looks across to Paradzik, his young Bosnian co-worker lying in the bed next to his, and to Thompson, their concerned manager hovering close by. Alderson`s face and Paradzik`s hand are sliced up by shrapnel, and both just had their right ankles amputated.
Last Friday Alderson and Paradzik were steadily working through an area that is filled with cluster bombs and cuts a swathe through the tall olive groves, just as they had all month. Their 10-person teams had destroyed over 400 munitions between them, and they were reaching the end of their difficult task.
Hizbullah had occupied positions below the town during the summer`s 34-day-war, and the citizens of Deir Mimas had borne the brunt of "Israel's" wrath.
Mikhael Bishara, the local mukhtar, says most residents left halfway though the conflict, just as they had when "Israel" previously occupied the town for 18 years. Now, olive harvesters are reclaiming access to their land, critical during this two-month season. And funerals have been held again in the antiquated graveyard, the scene of numerous "Israeli" artillery rocket strikes.
It was just after 11 a.m. under a hot morning sun when the men heard the explosion and Sabah, the local goat farmer, crying for help. Confirming an accident, Alderson dashed down the rocky slope, with Paradzik following cautiously toward what they assumed was another cluster strike area.
"We were looking [for cluster bombs] all the time, that`s our job," says Alderson. "Scanning the ground, looking at the bushes, looking at the trees."
What happened next was a tragedy. Alderson reached the agitated Sabah surrounded by four dead goats. Looking for a safe passage out, Alderson stepped on a mine. Paradzik, 15 meters up the slope, remembers the horror of seeing Alderson "leaning on a tree with his face covered in blood." Instinctually moving to rescue him, Paradzik too hit a mine.
Thompson says Alderson called him at the office on his mobile phone seconds after his accident, and that he heard Paradzik`s explosion:
"`I`m down, I`ve lost my foot, I`m down,` Dave said, then [the line] went dead. Then the office got a call from him, and he said exactly the same thing before it went dead. Then I got another call from him, and I heard another bang, and realized we had a serious problem," Thompson recalls.
Warning their teams to stay back, Alderson attributes their crawl back up the steep hill to "instinct and sheer adrenaline."
Meanwhile Sabah apparently escaped the deadly site in another direction, unscathed. Reaching the top, both deminers were grabbed by medics Fadi Qayal and Nabil Hammoud - who lost two teeth in Paradzik`s blast - and strapped on spine boards. The medics hoisted the wounded men uphill toward the ambulance and then to the surgery suite of Marjayoun hospital 10 kilometers away. The doctors` decision to amputate their limbs was decisive and quick; the men had lost a lot of blood and the critical threat of infection was real.
The United Nations Mine Action Center (UNMACC) based in Tyre has confirmed the mines were "Israeli" anti-personnel mines No. 4, recently laid during the summer conflict. The land had previously been cleared of mines under a UAE contract between 2002 to 2004.
"This area was safe until this war happened, and now we have to re-clear it," announced Dalya Farran, the center`s media spokeswomen. However, sending in another British commercial firm, Bactec International - who have a UAE demining contract - to investigate the area a day later also proved dangerous.
Operations manager Anthony Wyles` foot landed on a mine, and in similar fashion, he was rushed first to Nabatiyeh Hospital and then to Hammoud Hospital in Sidon, where he too had his right ankle amputated. His room is next to Alderson and Paradzik`s. During visiting hours on Sunday, when the corridors were crowded with well-wishers - including team supervisors, researchers and medics - Alderson mused whether they could move Wyles, who is also British, into their cramped room to help his morale. All men are heading home in a couple of days, but their jobs have been promised to them after rehabilitation. Alderson says with certainty: "I`ll be back."
Meanwhile the land around Deir Mimas remains contaminated like most other towns, villages, groves and agricultural fields across South Lebanon, where "Israel" dropped an estimated 4 million cluster bombs during the last days of the war, with 1 million still unexploded.
The UNMACC has recorded 168 casualties from August 14, 2006, until November 21, 2006, with 23 of them dead. And now that the first new minefield has been discovered, spawning the first casualties among the demining teams here, the difficult work has just gotten worse.