Prepared by:
Rania Imam – Eiman Rashed
Moharram Fouad
Egypt has 22% of the World’s landmines on an area of 683 thousand feddans
El Alamein 1942 Battle was one of the main battlegrounds during the Second World War. Fought in Egypt (Northwestern coast) between Axis forces (Germany and Italy) under command of Field Marshal (Erwin Rommel nicknamed “The Desert Fox” and Allied (British Imperial) forces (Britain, British India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand) of the Eighth Army, commanded by General Claude Auchinleck. The Allied forces were victorious and prevented the advancing of the Axis forces at El Alamein. With nearly 75 years since this battle, El Alamein still retains one fifth of the world’s landmines, which occupies 10% of Egypt’s area with an estimate of approximately 23 million landmines and unexploded ordnance on an area of 683 thousand feddans of the best cultivatable lands in the northwestern coast region. 17 million landmines in El Alamein and the Western Desert, these landmines occupy an area of 287 thousand feddans in addition to a further 6 million landmines in Sinai buried by the Israeli forces during the wars period scattered over an area of 29 thousand feddans. These landmines have killed and injured nearly 639 people, 94% were men and mostly over 18 years old. An area children call “Devil’s Gardens”.
The “Right of Egypt” Campaign led by lawyer and human rights activist Hamidou Jamal Al-Prince has managed to obtain, in his view, a historic ruling before the Egyptian State Council in case No. 73974 of year 1967, the judicial court. The ruling indicated that Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries taking part in the Second World War are legally responsible for these landmines. The ruling has also entitled the Egyptian State to prosecute those countries and seek compensation for damages incurred due to buried landmines and has obligated these countries to remove these landmines at their own expense.
Hamidou said, “Those countries will be sued in their backyard and preparations are currently being arranged to file the first case before the UK Supreme Court against the British government and Queen Elizabeth in their capacity as representatives of the British people”.
Today years after the World War has ended, we only see the second largest factory for artificial limbs inaugurated in an annual celebration in which Reinhold Brender, UNDP resident representative in Cairo and Cherie Carlin, director of US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Cairo, as well as British and German ambassadors have participated.
Mr. Reinhold said, “Over the years, EU Member States who participated in the battle have helped with demining. This programme is the first direct contribution of the European Union itself to this effort. We are very pleased to be a part of it and to contribute to improving the lives of the inhabitants of Egypt’s North West Coast”. The project has successfully managed to enhance the mine clearance operations in the North West Coast through the provision of over 2.5 million euros worth of demeaning equipment.
This equipment helped increase the cleared area to more than 480 square kilometers, liberating areas of idle land from the clutches of mine contamination. The project has managed to remove 40% of landmines buried in this area.
Cherie Carlin, Director of the USAID in Cairo, has congratulated 40 women whom were given sewing machines to supplement their family’s income and asserted that the USAID will continue providing support to clear all Egypt’s mines and help landmine victims.
According to the Ministry of International Cooperation, a recent analysis of results of field survey conducted by the governorate on 639 survivors of explosion accidents indicated that majority of the victims were men (94%) and adults (97%) who are over 18 years old. Moreover, upper limp injuries (48%) are the most common injuries among victims compared to lower limp injuries (37%) and other injuries (15%).
For his part, Major General Staff Officer Shamil Ibrahim, Head of Department of Military Engineers, said, “The maps of landmines, which Britain claims they have been handed over to Egypt, are just sketch maps and are not clear given the fact that mines were buried quickly and in a random pattern”.
Ibrahim said, “The Armed Forces’ five-year plan aims at clearing 7 thousand hectares per year in addition to fulfilling requests made by the government and private sector companies in order to help them in the mine clearance operations. The mine clearance operations, which included clearing 4487 thousand hectares in the Western Desert, cost a huge sum of money and the cost of dumping the remaining mines is worth nearly EGP 1.5 billion”.
Despite financing victims with small-sized enterprises, such as street kiosks, through a grant allocated by the USAID and the Ministry of international cooperation, they did not help much in alleviating suffering of those who were injured in landmine incidents. Mrs. Najia Saad Makhzom asked for a wheelchair for her husband who was injured in a landmine accident and said that the project does not generate adequate income.
As mentioned above, the government aid to these families is not even enough and it would not help to inaugurate an artificial limb factory or even launch a small business for those who were injured in landmine incidents. How can they even run these businesses if they are either blind or deaf, or have lost their hands or legs.
They can barely use their senses even when using artificial limbs.
Therefore, those victims and their families need to be financially compensated, morally, and psychologically and this does necessarily mean that the government should pay them a handful of money monthly. Instead, the names of those victims must be remembered through honouring them in annual celebrations so that they can feel their dignity and the world would remember them the same way it remembers heroes of their wars in history.
Countries that planted these mines are obliged to commit to complete clearance of these mines in the same manner they have been implanted. On the other hand, financial compensation, moral support of victims and over 70 years of waste should be seriously evaluated for returns to a governorate and a country that still pays the price of World war II battles.
