- Emmily Sjolander and Hanna Risen, MAG Lebanon interns
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Preparing for a demolition. Hanna is on the left in the centre photo. |
8.00 – Arrival at the office in Nabatieh
On the second floor between the conference room and the Technical Operations Manager’s office in a villa located in Kfar Joz, just outside Nabatieh, is our office. Though the windows are often closed to let the air conditioner do its work, a glance out the window would show a hillside with large houses and dry grass. Not long ago the grass caught fire in the heat, causing a huge wall of flames. Luckily the blaze could be beaten that time, and today the surroundings are as calm as ever. After a quick slurp of Arabic coffee in the kitchen we have some time to check our emails and prepare today’s work.
9.00 – Meeting with the Country Programme Manager
At the office of our Country Programme Manager, Christina Bennike, we give an update of our current work. We talk about the current fundraising work, deadlines for this and the coming week, and an upcoming article about MAG in the English-language national newspaper.
10.30 – In the workshop
A visit with Hadi, the Mechanical Site Supervisor, in the MAG workshop down the road is next on the schedule. Almost as if planned, we arrive at the workshop just in time for breakfast and our empty stomachs are happy to be filled. The nice guys in the workshop ply us with feta cheese and bread while we discuss the construction of new machines and pick Hadi’s brain on some technical issues for our grant proposal.
Today only three of the mechanical staff are present in the workshop. The rest of the mechanical team is working with the teams operating in the field. MAG Lebanon is currently equipped with two excavators, one traxcavator and a MineCat. All their maintenance, as well as that of the other vehicles used by MAG, is done in the workshop. The mech team has also done quite a bit of technical development for the machines and it is truly inspirational to see the crafty new solutions these guys might come up with.
The model we built in the workshop for our Bachelor degree needs some final adjustments, so we take a few moments to get our hands dirty among all the welding, cutting and drilling tools.
11.50 – A change of plans
Next on the agenda had been a field visit with Community Liaison Officer Rashid, but as often happens, things had to be rapidly rearranged to accommodate the events of the day. Back at the office, we have a few minutes to gather some of our things and a visit to the bathroom (even the guys in the workshop hesitate to use the one in there). We’re on our way to meet Rashid when Jeff Caldwell, the Area 6 Manager and Technical Field Manager-Team Leader, announces that there are going to be demolitions at one of his sites in about an hour and that we are to come along to observe. We postpone our field interview until later in the afternoon and make a dash for our personal protection equipment (PPE).
12.30 – Picking up explosives
Arrival at the Lebanon Armed Forces base with Jeff and his Field Assistant Hisham Hojeij. We pass the building of the Regional Mine Action Centre and some minefields before reaching the storage for explosives. All electronic equipment must be turned off when approaching the storages facility where we get all the explosives and detonator needed for the demolition.
13.00 – Setting up for demolitions
We reach ‘CBU 1160’ in Kfar Tibnite, where five items have been fund during the day: two BLU63s plus one fuse (M219E1) and two M42s. After signing in at the Control Point, we put on our PPE and head out to the spot for the findings. The sun is baking hot and even hotter of course in full protective gear. Walking on the newly cleared land, you can’t help thinking about what might be lying in the ground only a few millimetres away, even though we are getting used to being out in the field by now.
Safely positioned a few steps back, we watch as Jeff inspects the dangerous items and prepares the explosives needed (700g of C4). Because the M42s are fully armed and ready to be set off, they are impossible to render safe and move to one single detonation pit. Because of this, Jeff has to use two electrical detonators and set up a more complicated detonation than what we are used to. This is handy however, since it means that both of us get to press the button once.
13.42 – BOOM
Instructed by Jeff, we each in turn press the button of the mini shrike to set off the controlled explosion, jumping slightly at the loud bangs. When we go to inspect the dems, only small fragments remain of the once-harmful items. Impressive as the explosion itself might be, the best thing about doing demolitions is the knowledge that the land is now a little bit safer for its people than it was before.
14.00 – Community Liaison
At the Control Point, Rashid awaits us and we depart for the village of Arab Salim. In the car he explains how he came to be a Community Liaison Officer and how the work is different here in the area of Nabatieh, where he is from, compared to working for example in the Chouf Mountains, where MAG are clearing minefields that are leftovers from the civil war. Gaining the trust and confidence of the local population is essential and requires patience, diligence and sensitivity.
14.30 – Arrival in Arab Salim
Sitting in the shade of a tin roof, beneath the grapes hanging down from their vines, is the Saadi family grandmother. She smiles at us with her two remaining front teeth. Soon her son and daughter show up and not long after, a little girl happily provides us with juice and coffee. Rashid explains that the small terrace where we are sitting used to be a Control Point when the surrounding land was being cleared, so we are not the first people in MAG clothes to have coffee beneath the grapes.
Right now, MAG are conducting clearance a bit further away, where a daughter of the family owns land. The son owns a bulldozer and at times has come across unexploded sub-munitions while using his machine for work, reporting his findings. He also knows a lot about his sister’s lands and the area around it, and Rashid is asking him for any new information on landowners and beneficiaries, or of course of cluster munitions or accidents, etc. Having brought a satellite-image map of the area, he also marks any new buildings that the son tells him of.
15.30 – Return to HQ
Back at the office, it’s time to do some paper work. Filling out forms, bringing order to the notes from today, and sending some required documents to the Country Programme Manager is what the last hours at work consist of.
17.00 – Lights out
Time to go home and rest after a busy day, and to get ready for tomorrow!
20 August 09
Latest news from Lebanon:
- VIDEO: Clearance in South Lebanon UK Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis meets some of the staff from MAG in South Lebanon, which is littered with unexploded munitions from the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. (13 August 09)
- A widow's remarkable tale Two months pregnant with the couple’s ninth child, Em Saoud Mashmoushi watched her husband being shot dead and was herself hit in the back by a bullet. Miraculously, both she and the baby survived. Then came the challenge of living close to land contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance... (28 July 09)
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