Lebanese mine clearer rushes back to work despite loss of limb

By Patrick Galey
Daily Star staff
Saturday, September 05, 2009

NABATIEH: Ali Murad will never forget one ill-fated day in February. “When I went to hospital I wasn’t unconscious so I remember everything,” he says. “We were working normally in the field. On the way back to my line” – Murad claps his hands. “Bang.” Ali, 25, was part of the Mine Advisory Group’s field clearance team on that fateful winter morning. His team was conducting a visual search in an area of land known to be contaminated with live cluster bomb fragments and had taken a break.

On the way back to his search position, Ali stepped on an unexploded M-77 submunition. The blast obliterated his right foot and badly damaged the other leg. Quick thinking by his support team in the field may well have saved Ali’s life.

“The team had the dressing on and got him out of the field in about four minutes,” says MAG Technical Field Manager Jeffrey Caldwell.

“When the bang happened, I saw my leg. I said ‘It’s finished,’” Ali recalls. “The medic was telling me there was nothing to worry about, that it would be OK. I told him to forget this one,” he says, pointing to the gap below his right knee. “Take care of the other one.”

Ali pleaded with surgeons at Sidon’s Hammoud Hospital to save as much of the ruined limb as possible. In listening to their stricken patient, the surgeons made a terrible error.

They amputated too little of the injured area and in order for a prosthetic limb to be fitted, Ali required an additional dangerous operation to remove more of his leg.

Ali’s injuries were so severe that doctors initially feared he would never walk again. What they hadn’t anticipated was the determination of their patient.

“The day of the accident I went to see Ali in the hospital,” says MAG country program manager, Dr. Christina Bennike. “The first thing he asked was, ‘When can I come back to work?’” she adds.

To Bennike’s delight – and the doctors’ amazement – Ali was back in the field clearing mines in July – even before a suitable false leg had been found.

Bennike explains why getting Ali back into the fray was a priority.

“Psychological recovery is keeping these guys working, not to leave them at home feeling sorry for themselves, thinking and reflecting,” she says.

“This is something that we have started this year. We keep them on the payroll so they have access to medical support. [We have] a network of people who have been through similar experiences,” Bennike adds.

Although others have lost limbs and returned to work during the three years since MAG started clearing Lebanon of cluster bombs, she admits to being awestruck by Ali’s irascibility.

“There was another accident 10 days after Ali’s. We didn’t want to tell him but he found out,” Bennike says. “He found a wheelchair and dragged himself out of bed. He wheeled himself down to the intensive-care unit in order to check on his colleague.”

A subsequent investigation revealed that Ali’s munition had been buried at a rough depth of 20 centimeters. Not only did this absolve Ali of any professional negligence – given that the bomblet was not visible and hence hadn’t been “missed” – it also probably saved his life.

“One inch of standard earth [covering a bomblet] increases your chances of survival by about 3 percent,” explains Caldwell. “So for every inch of separation you have, your chance of survival goes up.

“We found that all the procedures were done properly and everything was the way it was meant to be. It was just one of those accidents that you cannot stop. It was just going to happen,” he adds.

Ali still walks with a slight limp and says he often finds himself scratching his false leg when he feels “like I have an itch in my old one.” But his mind is never far from the day of the accident.

“I remember thinking of my home,” he says. “You lose something in your body but your thoughts are not just for you. You think of your son, your wife. You think of things in a different way.”

Ali adds that despite his traumatic experience, not returning to a job that he loved was never an option.

“When you start you think about money; it’s a good salary,” he says. “But later, when you see the people we help and they thank you all the time, that feeling is very good.”

Palestinian camps protest Nahr al-Bared delay

By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Saturday, September 05, 2009

SIDON: Palestinian factions staged protests in refugee camps all across the country on Friday to condemn the ongoing delay in reconstructing the battered northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. Demonstrations were held in Ain al-Hilweh, near the southern coastal city of Sidon, al-Buss, near the port city of Tyre, and Chatila on the outskirts of the capital, to express solidarity with the refugees of Nahr al-Bared, who have yet to return home two years after the end of the battles between the Lebanese Army and the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam militant group.

Protestors held banners slamming a recent decision by the Lebanese government to halt the reconstruction process in Nahr al-Bared and voiced their demands in petitions sent to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials.

“We ask UNRWA to ease the suffering of Palestinian refugees at Nahr al-Bared and offer them relief,” said the head of Ain al-Hilweh’s Public Committee Abu al-Motassem.

Nahr al-Bared has been in ruins since 2007 when Lebanon witnessed a violent war between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam.

Lebanon’s Sate Shura Council recently issued a decision to halt the reconstruction process in the camp based on the discovery of Roman archeological ruins underneath the campsite.

Motassem called on the Lebanese government, UNRWA, the Arab League and the international community to reconsider the State Shura Council’s decision. “Refugees have been waiting for more than two years for the camp’s reconstruction,” he said.

Also in Ain al- Hilweh, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) official in south Lebanon Qassem Sobh asked the Lebanese government to find a solution for the “logistic difficulties” even if it meant “buying or renting nearby sites [to house refugees] in order to solve the humanitarian problem.”

The Union of Palestinian Factions official Abu Ahmad Fadel, demanded on Friday that the Lebanese Army put an end to the strict military measures imposed on the Nahr al-Bared refugees.

“We ask that the army reduce the security measures and guarantee the camp’s residents freedom of movement,” he said.

The delay in reconstruction also seems to have had repercussions on Lebanese- Palestinian political ties.

“The Nahr al-Bared issue concerns all Palestinians,” said spokesman of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Ali Mahmoud. “Any attempt to halt the camp’s reconstruction directly affects Lebanese-Palestinian relations” he added.

Saudi prince urges US to recognize oil dependency

September 05, 2009

MILAN: The United States has no alternative to oil to meet its massive energy needs and should recognize its energy interdependence with the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki al-Faisal wrote in an article on Friday. US President Barack Obama has been pushing to boost green energy which cuts emissions of heat-trapping gases and reduces the use of fossil fuels. In his election campaign, Obama raised some potentially disturbing issues for the Saudis, such as ending dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

In the article translated into Italian and published by Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Turki said energy independence was an unrealistic, groundless and harmful concept which was likely to re-emerge once economic recovery pushed oil prices up.

“There is no technology on the horizon which can replace oil to satisfy colossal needs of US industry, transport and armed forces. Any future scenario will be characterized by mix of renewable and non-renewable energies whether you like it or not,” Turki said.

His criticism comes as the US Senate is working on a wide-ranging energy and environmental bill aimed to put limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that big industries are allowed to emit.

Turki, a former Saudi intelligence chief and envoy to Washington and London, said the United States, the world’s biggest energy consumer, should put aside the rhetoric of energy independence and instead recognize interdependence of energy producers and consumers.

“Whether you like it or not, the destinies of the United States and Saudi Arabia are linked and will remain [linked] for decades,” he said.

Source: Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Middle-East/Sep/05/Saudi-prince-urges-US-to-recognize-oil-dependency.ashx.

Irish warning as poll shows EU treaty support slipping

DUBLIN: Ireland’s foreign minister warned Friday that the government faces a “significant challenge” in a second referendum on a new EU treaty next month, as a poll showed support for a Yes vote slipping. A poll featured in The Irish Times said support for the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty dropped eight points to 46 percent since May, while opposition to the key reform document stood at 29 percent, increasing one point.

The number of undecided voters jumped seven points to 25 percent ahead of the October 2 referendum, called after Irish voters delivered a shock rejection to the treaty last year, plunging the EU into institutional limbo.

“There is a very significant challenge ahead,” Foreign Minister Micheal Martin told the RTE state broadcaster. “It is going to be a tight campaign.

“It is going to be a challenging debate. I was never under any illusion that it would be difficult to secure this [a Yes vote] but I do think we can do it.”

Martin said the campaign would demand all the “politics and passion” of backers of the treaty and particularly those who see a ‘yes’ vote as a significant step on the road to economic recovery in recession-hit Ireland.

“That’s the key issue,” said Martin, who is director of the campaign for Prime Minister Brian Cowen’s Fianna Fail party.

He said a major change since Ireland’s shock 53.4 percent rejection of Lisbon in a referendum in June, 2008, was that the number of ‘don’t knows’ had dropped and more people were aware of the issues involved.

The second Irish referendum was called after the EU made a series of guarantees to Dublin, including keeping its EU commissioner in Brussels, as well as on its military neutrality, abortion and taxation.

The Irish Times said the poll indicated the referendum “is more likely than not to be won.” It said a plunge in the popularity of the government and “political complacency” had led to the fall in support for the treaty.

“With less than a month remaining until polling day, this erosion of support should shake the pro-Lisbon parties out of a lethargy that has been the distinguishing mark of their performances to date,” the newspaper said.

Of the 27 EU nations, only Ireland is constitutionally bound to hold a referendum on the treaty, which is designed to improve decision-making in a greatly expanded bloc.

Yemen willing to halt offensive if rebels agree to stand down

Government says offer aimed at facilitating humanitarian work

SANAA: Yemen said on Friday it would suspend operations against rebels in the north of the country to allow access for aid groups if the Shiite rebels also agreed to stop fighting. “The government sees no problem with suspending operations as of 9 p.m. Friday evening,” a spokesman of the Supreme Security Committee said in a statement on the ruling party website September 26.

It said the ceasefire was conditional on the rebel movement doing the same and did not specify a time frame for the stop.

There was no immediate res­ponse from the rebels.

Both sides have previously rejected ceasefire offers by the other party.

“[This is] in response to the calls of international aid organizations and the demands of men and women in Saada so that those displaced in camps because of the strife caused by the subversives and rebels receive supplies,” it said.

Last month fresh fighting erupted between Zaydi Shiite Muslims in the Saada region and government forces trying to impose central authority.

The conflict in Yemen first broke out in 2004.

UN aid agencies say over 100,000 people, many of them children, have fled their homes during the surge in fighting.

They launched an appeal in Geneva this week for $23.5 million to help Yemen. Thousands are thought to be staying in tented camps.

Information about the conduct of the war has been hard to verify since northern provinces have been closed to media.

Earlier on Friday each side traded claims over the fighting in the mountainous territory bordering Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer.

A government military statement said the army had killed three rebel leaders and deployed a unit of snipers.

“Leaders of the rebellion, among the most dangerous terrorist elements, were killed” in the attack at Malaheez, Yemen’s official Saba news agency cited the statement as saying.

The report identified the men as Jarallah Mohammad Ismail, Ali Abd Rabbo Jabal and Abdel Aziz al-Uraimi.

Since August 11, government forces have been waging operation “Scorched Earth” against the Zaydi rebels.

The rebels told AFP in a statement on Friday that they were ready to cooperate with a United Nations plan for a “humanitarian corridor” to allow aid into the areas where fighting was taking place.

The army said it had sent elite marksmen to the conflict zones and this “has inflicted enormous losses” on the rebels.

Friday’s assault destroyed or damaged several vehicles delivering weapons and food to the rebels’ mountain strongholds in Saada Province, and government forces removed barriers the rebels had put across main roads to halt the army’s advance, the statement added.

In a video clip broadcast by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, the Yemeni rebels accused neighboring Saudi Arabia of providing military support to Sanaa.

In the footage, the authenticity of which cannot be confirmed, an unidentified person says rebels have seized weapons and ammunition abandoned by government forces near Malaheez and “most, including shells, are Saudi.”

He shows a weapon appearing to carry an emblem of the Saudi kingdom.

The Sanaa government last week rebuffed rebel claims that Saudi warplanes had helped in the military offensive by launching several bombing runs over Malaheez.

Thousands of people have been killed and the UNHCR es­timates 150,000 have been displaced over the past five years.

UNHCR has said Saada city is practically cut off from the outside world, and called for humanitarian corridors to allow people out and aid in.

“The situation is deteriorating by the day,” a spokesman said on August 26, estimating that more than 35,000 people have been displaced by the latest outbreak of violence that has afflicted the province sporadically since 2004.

The government is also confronted by a growing separatist mood in the former South Yemen, and the impoverished country is increasingly being used as base by Al-Qaeda, taking advantage of the rugged terrain.

Hariri set to propose unity cabinet before Sleiman goes to UN

By Elias Sakr
Daily Star staff
Saturday, September 05, 2009

BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is expected to submit a proposal on the make-up of the national unity government to President Michel Sleiman prior to September 23, informed sources said on Friday. Meanwhile, Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) officials stressed Friday that the opposition stance was unified and no government would be formed if the FPM was excluded.

Hariri will submit a proposal on the cabinet make-up to President Sleiman prior to the latter’s trip to New York on September 23, to take part in the UN General Assembly, Future Movement officials told The Daily Star on Friday.

Future Movement MP Am­mar Houri said the premier-designate would exercise his constitutional rights related to suggesting a government line-up to Sleiman in order to conclude the formation process in cooperation with the president.

Houri added that an accord on the distribution of ministerial portfolios has “almost been finalized” between the parliamentary majority and the president, as well as opposition groups Hizbullah and Amal.

The only remaining obstacles to the cabinet’s formation were the set of conditions imposed by FPM leader MP Michel Aoun, Houri said.

Media reports said on Friday that Hariri would include in his proposal to the president his view on the distribution of ministerial portfolios among political parties.

The reports said Hariri’s proposal would assign portfolios to 25 candidates, and would leave to Aoun the freedom to nominate his ministers for the five remaining seats allotted to the FPM, counting four portfolios and a state ministry.

However, the report said, Hariri would couple his proposal with a clause which denies candidates, who lost the race to Parliament on June 7, the right to be nominated ministers, the reports said.

The press leaks added that Hariri’s proposal would be valid for 48 hours after which Hariri would form a cabinet in cooperation with Sleiman that excludes the FPM.

But FPM official and caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Mario Aoun denied during a phone interview with The Daily Star the validity of such claims.

Aoun said the reports aimed “to pressure and weaken” the FPM, adding that the premier-designate would not attempt such a move. “Such a move is controversial and will lead to escalation,” he said.

The FPM official added that his party was in constant contact with Hizbullah and the Amal Movement, its allies in the opposition, in order coordinate “every step” with regard to the formation process.

“The president had also de­clared that he would not sign the cabinet formation decree if it is not one of national unity,” he said.

Aoun also stressed that if the FPM leader’s demands were not met by the premier-designate, “the cabinet would not be formed anytime soon.”

In support of Michel Aoun, Hizbullah MP Nawaf Moussawi called on the premier-designate to “withdraw from the battle launched by majority Christian groups to weaken Aoun and the FPM representation in a national-unity cabinet.”

Speaking during an iftar on Friday, Moussawi stressed that Lebanon could only be governed through consensus, “since its political regime is built on sectarianism.”

On Thursday, efforts to form a cabinet hit a dead end after recent deliberations between the FPM leader’s son-in-law caretaker Telecommunication Minister Jebran Bassil and the premier-designate failed to make any breakthroughs.

Aoun is adamant that Bassil retain the telecommunications portfolio for a second term.

But Hariri and others in March 14 have strong objections to Bassil heading the ministry because he lost in the election.

Aoun also insists on getting one of the key ministerial posts, dubbed “sovereign portfolios” and which include the Interior, Defense, Finance and Foreign ministries.

The National News Agency quoted well informed sources in remarks published Friday saying that Bassil would visit Hariri at his residence in Qoreitim for another round of consultations before the Future Movement leader submits his proposal to Sleiman.

Hariri had reiterated on several occasions that while he was keen on the opposition’s participation in a unity cabinet, the opposition’s involvement ought not to be governed by preconditions.

Some Figures of the March 14 coalition had called on Hariri to form a majority cabinet if he failed to reach an agreement with opposition groups.

Separately, Tawheed Movement head Wi’am Wahhab warned on Friday against incidents similar to that of May 7, 2008, if state officials adopted a stance similar to that of May 5, 2008.

On May 7, 2008, bloody clashes erupted between pro-government and opposition supporters in Beirut and the Chouf mountainous region following a decision by the cabinet headed by Premier Fouad Siniora to dismantle Hizbullah’s telecommunication network on May 5, 2008.

In other news, Siniora said Friday the parliamentary majority was adamant to preserve Lebanon’s democratic regime, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, investigating former Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination, and coexistence among Lebanese factions.

Pakistan will continue to support the K-cause: Gilani

Calcutta News.Net
Saturday 5th September, 2009 (ANI)

Karachi, Sep.5 : Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has once again said that Islamabad would continue its support to the Kashmiri people and the government's decision to give autonomy to Gilgit Baltistan does not mean that it has shelved the Kashmir issue.

"We gave internal autonomy, sovereignty to Gilgit Baltistan which was a long standing demand of its people but this does not mean that we have forgotten the Kashmir issue. We will continue to give moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people," Gilani said.

The prime minister said the government had not altered its stance on the Kashmir issue by awarding autonomy to the Northern Areas.

He said Kashmir was the cornerstone of the PPP's foreign policy, and support to the cause would continue.

Interacting with media persons during an Iftar dinner hosted by Sindh Governor Dr. Ishratul Ebad Khan, Gilani stressed that Pakistan was not a 'failed state', saying the country has a 'strong democratic government, independent judiciary, free media'.

Referring to the Swat military operation, Gilani said security forces have 'successfully' defeated extremism and militancy with full support of the masses.

"NATO forces are fighting in Afghanistan for last five and a half years but Pakistan's armed forces successfully carried out the operation against extremists and terrorists in Malakand in eight weeks," The Dawn quoted Gilani, as saying.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that there is a need to project the Kashmir issue more vigorously and the role of Kashmiri leadership was extremely important in this context.

Briefing political leaders of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) on the Gilgit-Baltistan reforms, Qureshi said resolution of the Kashmir issue was the key to a durable peace in the region.

"We feel that Kashmir dispute is central to Pakistan-India relations, which highlights the need for the Kashmiris to be associated with the dialogue process," Qureshi said.

He assured the leaders that Pakistan has been making consistent efforts to project the Kashmir cause at various international levels.

Commenting on the water dispute with India, Qureshi said : "We have emphasized upon the Indian side that there was a need to ensure respect to Indus Waters Treaty and the commitment to address concerns related thereto."