![]() I understand Mankell was a leftie - was on the Gaza flotilla that got shot up by the IDF, for instance - but this book seems pretty critical of Sweden’s lax border policies. Ciphers, flotsam from the fall of the Iron Curtain washed up on Sweden’s all-too-welcoming shores. Henning Mankell, “Faceless Killers” (1991) (translated from the Swedish by Steven Murray) – Well, SPOILER ALERT, the killers are indeed faceless. Name Asterisk on Review- Ma, “Harassment A… Review – Fountain, “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”.Her brother was avoiding a device he had spotted when a second one went off and blew up their vehicle.īoushi's brother and mother were killed, while her daughter was left so shell-shocked she has not uttered a word in five years. The landmine that killed her relatives was the second one they came across that day. They include the family of Zakia al-Boushi who, on a fateful day in 2017, went out with eight relatives in Aleppo province searching for the precious white truffles that grow in the desert sands in winter. The world body is struggling with limited funding for its de-mining programmes, Javed said.Īs a result, civilians have paid the price. UNMAS also carried out sweeps in the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp outside Damascus, which was held by rebels and then jihadists before its recapture by government forces in 2018.Įxplosive remnants were found in about 200 out of 6,000 surveyed buildings, the UN said. Last year, UNMAS carried out its first mine-clearing operation in government-held parts of Daraya, an area on the outskirts of Damascus that was once a rebel bastion and saw fierce fighting. "We deal with unexploded ordnance according to one principle," he told AFP.Ī lack of resources is depriving most of Syria's towns and villages of vital mine clearance work. ![]() Raed Hassoun of the White Helmets heads a de-mining centre in Syria's northwest that has neutralised about 24,000 explosive devices since 2016. The White Helmets rescue group has even set up training and workshops to raise awareness on the dangers landmines pose. In Syria's rebel-held north, it is rescue workers who take on the daunting task of sweeping for landmines and detonating them, in the absence of state support. Syrian authorities detonate ammunition and explosive remnants of war on a near-daily basis, especially in areas formerly held by rebel forces near the capital. They stay lethal even longer if they are kept inside casings, he told AFP during a de-mining training exercise organised by the military near Damascus. "Mines have a long lifespan," said a Syrian army officer, who asked not to be named over security concerns. Syria's war is estimated to have killed almost 500,000 people and displaced millions since it began in 2011.Ībout 10.2 million people, or roughly half of all Syrians, live in areas contaminated with explosive devices, the UN says. "Currently, Syria is reporting the highest number of victims caused by explosive ordnance globally." This is a "huge number", said Habibulhaq Javed, who heads Syria's UNMAS team. The UN Mine Action Service said 15,000 people have been killed or injured by explosive devices in Syria since 2015. "Death awaited us from inside the earth," he said, surrounded by his orphaned nephews. "An entire family was destroyed," Oqab said about the fateful day more than three years ago, sitting outside his traditional beehive-style mud hut in his village in Hama province. ![]() Since 2015, landmines and other explosive remnants have on average killed or injured five people every day, according to UN data. The airstrikes and shelling responsible for many of the Syrian war's half million deaths have decreased in recent years.īut remnants of explosives laid by all sides in the 11-year-old conflict are now claiming more lives in Syria than anywhere else in the world, says the United Nations. People live in fear of this faceless killer that could be anywhere." "It was a day of joy that turned into tragedy," Oqab, 41, told AFP. "I've come to hate going out since then. Oqab walked away with relatively light wounds that day in February 2019, but the blast killed his wife, two of his sons, four of his siblings, an uncle and other family members, and left others maimed. They were planning to sample the long-forgotten peacetime pleasure of a simple family picnic when a landmine brought a bloody end to their outing, and to the lives of 21 family members. Family members from three generations were huddled on the back of a pickup truck for what started as a joyful ride through the Syrian countryside for Abdulaziz al-Oqab and his relatives.
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