Today the group met with Cedra, our tour guide, and Jamal, our bus driver. Llewelyn Jones, the Interim Country Program Manger for MAG, joined us. The group met with Habbouba Aoun, Director of the Landmine Resource Center, which is located at St. George Hospital on the campus of the University of Balamand. The LMRC advocates the prevention, rehabilitation and social reintegration of both direct and indirect survivors of incidents involving land mines and/or unexploded ordnance.
The socio-economic impact of the landmine and UXO problem in Lebanon is huge. Landmines, cluster munitions, UXO, and booby-traps have mainly been planted in areas where agriculture was a mainstay of the economy.
Habbouba is considered a trailblazer in helping to change the mindset of the international community to focus on the need for long-term rehabilitation and reintegration as opposed to immediate short-term remedial treatment programs.
In 1998, the LMRC undertook a nation-wide door-to-door survey of landmine victims in Lebanon that assessed the landmine problem and was crucial in the development of well-structured mine risk education programs that, over the past decade, has led to an appreciable decline in the number of landmine/UXO incidents – from more than 7 per month to approximately 1.5 per month.
The LMRC uses various interventions to raise the level of awareness on the risk of land mines and unexploded ordnance. Some initiatives are community-based; others rely on school curricula. Each of these, along with other interventions, have had the desired effect – incidents are decreasing.
About half way through our meeting, Dr. Nadim Karam, the Vice President for Health Affairs and Community Development at the University of Balamand, joined us. Dr. Karam, who oversees the Landmine Resource Center, made a compelling case for long-term rehabilitation of war victims, including landmine/UXO survivors and their families. The rehabilitation of such individuals requires time, money and patience. He stressed the importance of instilling confidence in survivors and bringing them from a disadvantaged state to a “zero state.” Only then can such individuals become an asset to society, as opposed to a perceived liability.
Dr. Karam and Habbouba left the group with one plea: funding for mine risk education has decreased to very low levels. It seems, Dr. Karam said, that mine action is no longer fashionable.
Regrettably, the group’s scheduled meeting with Nabih Berry, the Speaker of Lebanon’s Chamber of Deputies, was cancelled due to the demands of his position. Later in the day, however, the Americans in our group had the pleasure of meeting with U.S. Embassy staffers Rob McCutcheon, a Political Officer and Dave Howe, a Political-Military Affairs Officer. The two provided an excellent brief on the geopolitical state of affairs in Lebanon and the Mid-East region as a whole.
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