Defining Futures
Ukraine landmine clearance and recovery of survivors in Ukraine
© Giles DuleyFor over twenty years I’ve been documenting the impact of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) globally on civilians – often decades after wars have ended. Angola, Cambodia, Laos, Colombia, Lebanon, Iraq, Vietnam… the list goes on of the countries where I have witnessed the deaths, the injuries, the traumatised communities, and unusable farmland that is the landmine legacy. And since 2015, I have documented the contamination of land in Ukraine.
This series is also a tribute to the bravery and resolve of those whose mission and purpose it is to clear the land of UXO, just as it also honours those Ukrainians injured by landmines who stand with resilience and set an example for us all. Duty, honour, pride, and a sense of service, permeate each image.
Ukrainians never ask for sympathy or pity; rather for support and solidarity. We see International NGOs working together and global support galvanised, but it is just the beginning. Ukraine is now the most mined country in the world: up to 30% of its land has been exposed to conflict and is at risk of contamination with landmines and UXO. At current rates it could take decades to completely clear the land.
When I went back to Afghanistan, eighteen months after I was nearly killed by a landmine (IED), people asked: “Why are you going back? You have nothing left to prove.” After all I was now a triple amputee, it was painful to walk, a struggle to hold the camera in my rebuilt hand. Indeed, why would I once again face those risks, the discomforts, there was no need.
My answer was clear: “Each day,” I said, “I wake with pain - both psychological and physical and must face challenges in life just to do the simplest tasks. But each day when I awake, I do not feel sorry for myself: instead, I think that somewhere in the world a child is waking up for the first time with these realities, and I ask myself why a child should have to go through what I go through because they were walking to school or playing in the forests or were asleep at home. And if my work means one child does not die or is not injured, then all I do will have been worthwhile. That is my purpose”
Every day I wish I could do more, but every day I do all I can.
With the work and exhibition I hope to bring home the realities of landmine and UXO contamination in Ukraine. All I ask is that as governments, NGOs, business, individuals – we ask ourselves that question: Are we doing all we can to make sure the legacy for future generations is one of peace and safety in a landmine free Ukraine?
- Giles Duley: UN Global Advocate for Persons with Disability in Conflict and Peace Building Situations, photographer, writer, and CEO of Legacy of War Foundation.
click to view the complete set of images in the archive
