As a way of reducing poverty across northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government is encouraging people displaced by conflict to return to their villages and resume farming. Crucial to this process is MAG’s role in ensuring valuable farming land is free from remnants of conflict.
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Kula, in Dohuk governorate, is one of many villages alongside the former green line separating northern and central Iraq that was left contaminated by the coalition forces’ air strikes in 1991.
Muhammad Taha [pictured below] is a shepherd: "In 1998, two accidents took place in the village and caused the death of three shepherds. Another was injured. After the accidents we knew that the land was contaminated with cluster submunitions, so we stopped using the land.”
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→ December 2009: A MAG Community Liaison team visits Kula to assess the risk posed by cluster submunitions and to deliver Mine Risk Education (which minimises the risk for residents living in contaminated areas). → As a result of the CL team’s survey, two areas are prioritised for clearance. → January-April 2010: A MAG Mine Action Team clears more than 280,000m2 of land, safely destroying several cluster submunitions. → April 2010: The newly-safe land is returned to the local community. Around 220 people will benefit directly from this work. |
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[Photo: A member of MAG's Community Liaison staff meets with a shepherd in Kula.] |
Cluster submunitions, are the numerous small bomblets released by a cluster bomb [more info and photos here]. Bomblets that fail to explode on impact pose the threat of death or injury long after conflict is over.
With former residents now returning to the area, the clearance of agricultural land in such villages is a key priority of MAG’s operations in Iraq.
From January to April, a Mine Action Team cleared 278,142 square metres of contaminated farmland, safely removing and destroying several hazardous 'BLU-97' cluster submunitions.
The land was then handed back to the local community, at a ceremony at the Batel sub-district mayor's office.
It can now be used for growing wheat, barely and other types of vegetables, and for grazing animals. This will increase the availability of, and access to, food, and opportunities for employment, while also contributing to the local economy through improved trade with nearby villages and larger towns.
[Photo, top: A MAG Mine Action Team conducts clearance operations in Kula using a large loop detector.]
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More about the village of Kula
In the 1980s, the villagers of Kula, in Batel sub-district of Dohuk governorate, were forced to move to collective towns in Mosul governorate as, under Saddam, Arab-speaking families from Mosul were given the homes of the population in Kula and a military camp was constructed near the village for the Iraqi military.
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In 1991, the coalition forces bombarded the borders between Dohuk and Mosul governorates. The air strikes aimed to destroy the former Iraqi military camps in the area, but many villages located nearby the military camps were affected and became contaminated with remnants of conflict.
Following the 2003 conflict, villagers began to return to the area, moving back because of increased violence in Mosul.
In August 2009, a teacher from the village attended MAG’s Mine Risk Education Training of Trainer programme as part of a broader partnership with the Ministry of Education. MAG trained the teacher to deliver Mine Risk Education (MRE) to vulnerable and at-risk groups within the community.
In December 2009, a Sida1-funded MAG Community Liaison (CL) team deployed to Kula to conduct an assessment survey. This survey captured quantitative and community-level socio-economic data on the impact of remnants of conflict, as well as impact on wider conflict recovery and rehabilitation.
During the community assessment survey, the MAG CL team delivered MRE sessions to various groups of shepherds, primary school students, teachers and women in Kula to minimise the risk of remnants of conflict on the local communities.
1 Sida: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
More on cluster bombs
12 May 2010
MAG thanks the following donors to the Iraq programme: Stichting Vluchteling; Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, US Department of State; Irish Aid; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of the Netherlands; Marshall Legacy Institute; German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency); UNICEF. Click on Tags below for related articles.
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