Story and photograph by Sean Sutton
Ismail Mustafa sits on his balcony drinking tea with his wife and daughter. He looks across the fast flowing river to the far bank lush with fresh young crops, and on up the towering mountainside. “You see those trees up there?” he says, pointing to a green area quite a distance up the mountain. “That is my field. And I planted everything you can see. I go up there every morning on my donkey to take water and work on my crops.”
This is quite a feat when you consider Ismail has lost both of his legs to a landmine.
“I was collecting mushrooms on the hill near here and I didn’t see the mine. There was a huge explosion. When I woke up I saw that both my legs were gone I thought my life was over. My brother and a friend were with me. They made a stretcher from sticks and tied it together with clothing. It took two hours to get off the mountain," he explains.
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