A Cry

1
A Cry in a blind eye
(Al-Alamein)
Mohamed I. Geneid
National Student Representative PSR-Egypt
2
It's the number of landmines lying in wait for
victims in 70 nations
110 million
3
Middle East is one of the most heavily mined
regions in the world
4
Egypt alone hosts 25 of the total amount of
landmines in the world
25
5
Landmines in Egypt

• The World War II left some 19.7 million
  landmines in the area extending from Al-Alamein
  to Egypt's western border.
• Those landmines were planted by Britain, Germany
  and Italy.
• The wars between Israel and Egypt have left more
  than 6 million landmines in the Sinai and the
  Suez Canal zone.

6
The nightmare Al-Alamein

• The problem
• Almost every inhabitant
• of Al-Alamein knows
• someone who has been
• killed or maimed by a landmine.
• While the problem remains a "global humanitarian
  concern", little concrete assistance has been
  offered to countries like Egypt, for which the
  elimination of landmines would make all the
  difference.

7
The nightmare Al-Alamein

• While it costs only 3 to
• produce a mine, dumping
• a mine ranges from 5 to
• 30, clearance costs 300
• to 1,000. Multiplying this
• by the 23 million mines still
• existing in Egypt gives a rough estimate of
  the billions of dollars entailed.

8
The nightmare Al-Alamein

• Landmines are old and hard to locate and were
  designed for use against tanks, whereas
  international criticism is generally focused on
  antipersonnel mines.
• Land-mines buried underneath 248,000 hectares in
  the Western Desert
• - a very large area.
• - maps and records about its places are often
  inaccurate.

9
The nightmare Al-Alamein

• Landmines have been buried for decades, so the
  mines have become even more dangerous.
• As a result of rain, wind and the movement of
  sand dunes, the mines are subject to continual
  displacement.
• The military analysts said that storms have
  increased the depth at which many land mines are
  buried by eight meters, thus ruling out the use
  of normal mine-detection methods.

10
The nightmare Al-Alamein

• Egypt needs at least
• 2,000 mine-sweepers and the assistance offered
  by the countries responsible for planting the
  land-mines was
• Italy offered a training program for 20
  officers, books and illustrations explaining the
  types of mines that were used.
• Great Britain maps and 50 mine-sweepers in
  addition to a British grant of 500,000 provided
  between 1981 and 1991.

11
The nightmare Al-Alamein

• Germany records of minefields and 110
  mine-sweepers, no financial compensation was
  paid.
• As a reminder (!!!)
• Until September 1998, Germany paid 75 billion
  in compensation to the Jewish victims of the
  Holocaust, while Swiss banks have paid an
  additional 1,250 million in compensation to the
  victims of Nazism.

12
The nightmare Al-Alamein

• The last word to those who planted these mines in
  our lands
• You werent thinking
• even in your nearest
• future.

13

• Photos can speak
• This what you
• wanted!!

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• But this what you had

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• But not only you, those people are still paying
  the price for something they were involved in.
• "Although the Second World War
  ended in 1945, its aftermath persists in
  Egypt,"