The Deconstruction of a Legacy

[Jacaylbaro]

Tragedies of loved ones killed in explosions, and at best, half-beings, laid up in corners, using stubs which were once limbs to lead half lives. This is war’s legacy, bequeathed to Somalis and other war-worn people like them the world over.

 

Buried in the numerous humanitarian agency reports, the generosity of the legacy will stun you. “Approximately 1000 low to medium priority targets” this, I am told, is the extent to be de-mined. I’m guessing the devastation this could cause would be no different if it was a high priority target.

 

From mine risk education to de-mining and the rehabilitation of mine victims, the work is long and hard. Complications such as a lack of records of ordinances deployed, lack of proper roads and infrastructure to reach affected areas, ongoing security threats, a lack of awareness and abject poverty make it doubly difficult. A thread of frustration sandwiched between hope and despair runs through all the people I speak to irrespective of their mandated roles runs. I wonder at their tenacity to keep pushing for better funding, coordination, management, and sustainability.

 

The manpower, infrastructure, money, time and effort required to eliminate the problem is possibly as much as what goes into the clever piecing of these ordinances which are designed to kill and maim, if not more.

 

As I try to make sense of the operational terms and statistics and reports, the issue itself seems somewhat clinical and sterile. I can’t help wondering what goes on inside a child’s mind when she loses an arm or leg while playing outside. How does a husband feel to have his new wife and unborn child blown up and killed on the way to the market? What anxieties pass through a woman when she hears that her husband has been injured while grazing their meager livestock?

 

Helped by the politics of language, all this is sentimental fluff which is irrelevant in the pages of a report. There is no room for such sentimentalities when deciding if more or less money and effort should be employed in an area. The recurring theme seems to be the issue of recognition as a separate state. If the affected lived in a country that had diplomatic recognition then they could deal directly with the donors and get better assistance to deal with the problem in a sustainable manner.

 

It all seems slightly ironic when you think of the assistance given by some of these countries. Then it was assistance by way of shipments of all sorts of ordinances, arms and ammunition. Now it is assistance to clear away the mess the may have helped create. So instead of equipment for better farming, medical treatment, and hopefully a semblance of a normal life, the Somalis are left with weary projects chipping away for almost a decade at their legacy.

 

 

By Angelica Chandrasekeran in Hargeisa