Courageous farmers in Lebanon bear the brunt of Israel's cluster bombs
10 July 2007
by Weedah Hamzah

http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2007/07/courageous_farm.php

Aita al-Shaab, Lebanon - With an amputated leg and one eye left, Abu Ahmed, pointed proudly to an area near his house where a cluster bomb left behind from the war in Lebanon last July exploded as he was trying to plant his field.

'Nothing will deny me access to my tobacco field, even cluster bombs,' said Ahmed as he lifted his cane to showed his land in the village of Aitaa al-Shaab, an area near which two Israeli soldiers were snatched by the Lebanese movement Hezbollah in July 12 2006.

The incident triggered a 33-day war against Hezbollah by Israel.

Known in Lebanon as the July War, the conflict resulted in an estimated 1 million cluster bomblets contaminating farmlands and residential areas of southern Lebanon.

The agricultural village of Aita al-Shaab, in southern Lebanon, has suffered huge economic losses as a result of the inability to farm there in the aftermath of the war.

'Our fields now are killing fields. The Israelis left Lebanon their deadly cards on our soil,' he said.

Ahmed knew his land was littered with cluster bombs, but he could not risk losing his field for any reason. 'Our land is our soul and no one can make us leave it,' he explained.

He compared southern Lebanon to Vietnam when farmers were forced off their land by United States bombs.

'The Vietnamese were like us farmers. They were desperate to return to their land. They defied the cluster bombs and the mines and rushed to their land, despite the fact they would be maimed and killed. This is what I call great courage and we Lebanese are the same,' Ahmed said.

When fighting ended, despite a warning by the Lebanese government to be on the lookout for unexploded bombs in places like tobacco fields and citrus and olive groves, three to four people were killed a day venturing into their fields.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), agriculture makes up at least 70 per cent of the economy in southern Lebanon.

Residents in Aita al-Shaab say their local economy is 80 to 90 per cent dependent on agriculture, primarily tobacco and olives.

'About 80 per cent of the farmlands here are used for tobacco since it is also the only crop that guarantees an income. This year we remained without income,' Ahmed said.

According to FAO officials in Beirut, there are plans to assist southern farmers.

Demining teams from the UN and other agencies have already cleared cluster bombs and other deadly explosives from main roads, most residential areas and schools. But experts say much of the farmland is still littered with unexploded cluster bombs and it might take until next year to complete the task.

The issue has left the farmers in southern Lebanon angry.

'It is not only the tobacco fields that are contaminated, but all fields. People are broke,' said Ahmed.

'Nothing is currently growing in southern Lebanon, except the death toll from the explosions,' he added.

'What the farmers need most in southern Lebanon is for the government to help them financially to replace their crop losses,' said Khadija, a 70-year-old farmer, who owns 8,000 square meters of land, passed on to her through generations.

'I am a farmer and I have been a farmer all my life and I will stay that way, no matter what happens,' she said.

'I have not been in my land since last July because the area is closely guarded by the Israelis from the other side (of the border), and I am sure there are cluster bombs in the area,' she said.

'Usually this time is when we harvest our crop of tobacco,' she added sadly.

Looking out from her balcony onto the land on which her children once grew up, Khadija called on the Lebanese government for help.

'Most of the people are afraid that if there is no help and no income we will be in debt and someone will come and take our land in the end,' she said, tears running down her cheeks.

For most people in this southern village, the war that destroyed their village also left them with worry, anger and frustration at losing their identity as Lebanese farmers.