Iraq begins program to support mine victims
A Russian TM-46 anti-tank blast mine. Photo: Wikipedia
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – A new step adopted by the Iraqi government to support victims of mines left during successive wars by starting a support program, amid local and international commendations that it is the best in the world.
According to a statement issued by the Directorate for Mine Action (DMA) of the Iraqi Ministry of Environment, the issue of supporting mine victims is one of the priorities of the Iraqi government.
The DMA also indicated that it set a procedural plan and a program to support mine victims, clarifying that they were implemented in cooperation with Handicap International (HI).
The Director General of the DMA, Sabah Al-Husseini, stated last Thursday that the program is the best in the world as victims enjoy medical, economic, social and rehabilitative services, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
The head of HI’s program in Iraq, Daniela Maria Puska, mentioned during a workshop that Iraq is the first country in the world to have a national standard compatible with international standards related to the support provided to mine victims.
Last October, two Iraqi members of a team working for the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) were killed and a third was injured in an incident at an explosive ordnance clearance site at Shatt Al-Arab near the city of Basra.
According to a statement issued by the UNMAS last November, Iraq suffers from various types of contamination due to decades of war and conflicts, and these types of contamination are now threatening the lives and safety of Iraqis.
Iraq is the world’s most contaminated country with landmines, partly due to the mines laid by the ISIS group to defend the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, according to Reuters.
Iraq was already heavily contaminated as a result of the 2003 invasion by the US-led coalition, the 1991 Gulf War and the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq war, Reuters added.