Libya: war

Rasheed Lanka
Libya: war’s unexploded remnants still threaten

Some ten months after the end of the conflict, several cities and areas are still littered with unexploded shells, ammunition and mines – known collectively as explosive remnants of war, or ERW. Much has been cleared, but much more has still to be removed to make these places safe. Since April 2011, the ICRC's explosive ordnance disposal teams have cleared almost 11,000 unexploded devices and have removed small arms ammunition from Ajdabiya, the Nafusa mountains, Bani Walid, Brega, Sirte, Misrata, Zwara, Regdaline and Tripoli. Together with the Libyan Red Crescent, the ICRC is now focusing on teaching people about the risks associated with explosive remnants of war. At the same time, the ICRC is working closely with the Libyan authorities to ensure that clearance work continues effectively in Libya, by supporting their efforts to collect and manage casualty data and advising them on how to develop local capacity to address this humanitarian problem

Near Tripoli, Libya. An unexploded shell lies in a playground, September 2011.

Bir Al Ghanam, western Tripoli, Libya. An ICRC explosive ordnance disposal operator investigates a hole containing an unexploded shell at a mosque in October 2011.

Bani Walid, Libya. A 130 mm rocket went through the wall of this school in November 2011 – without exploding. 

Sirte, Libya. An ICRC weapon contamination team removes an unexploded shell in February 2012.

Buhadi, Libya. An ICRC weapon contamination team assesses an ammunition dump in February 2012.

Sirte, Libya. 615 items of unexploded ordnance and 2000 rounds of small arms ammunition are destroyed in a controlled explosion.

Nalut Central Demolition Site, Libya. The explosive ordnance disposal team leader prepares an assortment of unexploded shells for demolition in February 2012.

Central Demolition Site, near Tripoli, Libya. An ICRC explosive ordnance disposal team works with the Libyan military council to destroy unexploded ordnance in the presence of the Libyan police.

Sirte, Libya. Personnel unload ammunition that has not been fired.

Sirte, Libya. Hosam plays with his mobile phone. He lost three fingers and two toes playing with an unexploded device.

Rasheed Lanka
Humanity in War: from the mid-19th century

A selection of photos from the book Humanity in War. These images illustrate the history of armed conflict from the second half of the 19th century to the present. They bear witness not only to the brutality of war and the suffering inflicted on combatants and civilians but also to the efforts that have been made to relieve this suffering. The photos are accompanied by an extract from the introduction to the book, written by photographer James Nachtwey.

American Civil War, 1861-1865   “It’s been said that one picture is worth a thousand words. For a photographer, the saying can be reversed: one word is sometimes worth a thousand pictures. “Genocide”, “famine”, “war”, “epidemic”: words like these have brought about the creation of the ICRC and dozens of other humanitarian organizations, have inspired photographers to take risks and endure hardships. Although it has not always been regarded like this, the fact is that documentary photography and humanitarian work exist symbiotically: one of the primary functions of photography is to complement and support the work of humanitarian agencies.”The comments accompanying this series of photos are by the photographer James Nachtwey and are taken from the introduction to Humanity in war: frontline photography since 1860.

First World War. Sweden. First World War. Sweden.  Disabled German and Austrian servicemen released from captivity in Russia gather at Hallsberg station for a prisoner-of-war exchange under the auspices of the Swedish Red Cross.

Greco-Turkish War, 1923. A group of refugees board a ship on the Samanli-Dag peninsula with the help of the Turkish Red Crescent Society.

Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936. Surgeons operating in a field hospital.   “One of the few things that allows one to take heart is that these photographs also show people coming to the aid of those who are suffering. These people have left their homes, risked lives and limbs, overcome extraordinary obstacles. They have not given up.”

Spanish Civil War, 1937. Families gathered in the sanctuary of the Virgen de la Cabeza surrender to Republican troops after 150 days of siege.

Second World War. Germany. Men in a concentration-camp dormitory. “Widen the lens of history and you see many different places, but many similar images: the scattered dead, skeletal figures, eyes shining with horror and a trace of desperate hope, columns of refugees, destroyed cities and villages, rows of the sick, mass graves, shackles and chains, crying children, grieving mothers. This raises more, perhaps unanswerable, questions about the nature of human progress.”

Korean War, 1950. South Korean military police interrogate North Korean prisoners of war in Pyongyang.

 Japan, 1952. A woman reads the first letter received from her husband who remained imprisoned in the Soviet Union after the end of the Second World War.

Yemen conflict, 1964. Prisoners during an ICRC visit. “The ICRC’s delegates, and those from other humanitarian organizations, share the same hope as the people they’re helping, and they act on it, despite the hardships they endure and the risks they face. When I look at the pictures in this book, I can’t help but think how much worse things would have been if they hadn’t been there”.

Biafra conflict, Nigeria, 1968. A child waits for milk and fish vouchers in a feeding centre. “Photographs are not cold documents that merely prove something happened. They put a human face on events that might otherwise appear to be abstract or ideological, a matter of statistics or monumental in their global impact. No matter how overwhelming an event, what happens to people at ground level happens to them individually, and photography has a unique ability to portray events from their point of view. Photography gives a voice to the voiceless. It’s a call to action.”

Viet Nam War, South Viet Nam, 1975. Following the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese military personnel and their families seek desperately to be airlifted out of the area.

ICRC doctor examines a child.

Afghanistan, 1998. Military cemetery in Kabul. “When people are suffering, it doesn’t mean they are without dignity. When people are afraid, it doesn’t mean they lack courage. When people are in pain, it does not mean they have no hope. It’s very difficult to witness suffering, even more so when you have to concentrate on it in order to make an effective photograph. What an honest, sensitive and conscientious photographer would work very hard to perceive and to capture is that moment when all of those things coexist. Whatever else one might see or feel when looking at a picture of human suffering – outrage, sadness, disbelief – I think an essential reaction is a sense of compassion. Compassion humanizes issues, helps us identify with others, and requires us to correct that which is unacceptable.”

Peru 2004. Members of the national association of families of persons missing, detained or held hostage in areas under a state of emergency demonstrate in Ayacucho. “Photographers are many things – historians, dramatists, artists – and humanitarians. As journalists, one of their tasks is to reveal the unjust and the unacceptable, so that their images become an element in the process of change. In this way, photography is an important complement to the work of humanitarian organizations.”

Graffiti on the West Bank Barrier. Territories occupied by Israel, 2007.

Slices of Life in Gaza

@Rasheed Lanka
From 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009 Israel went to war with Hamas in Gaza after an escalation of violence between the two sides. Over 1,000 Gazans were killed, more than 5,000 wounded, over 50,000 were displaced, and over 4,000 homes totally destroyed. Gazans are still picking up the pieces from the war and there are high levels of poverty, deprivation and unemployment. With the imminent completion of an Egyptian above-and-below-ground steel barrier to prevent a thriving tunnel economy between Egypt and Gaza, residents are worried they will

A shepherd walks with his flock east of Jabaliya, northern Gaza

Gazan women walk past a mural of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was captured by Palestinian militants in 2006 and has been held as a prisoner by Hamas since

Many sell their catch in Gaza city fish market where only wealthier families can afford to shop 

Vegetables on sale at a market in Gaza.

A donkey cart laden with food provided by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Some 3,000 fishermen compete for dwindling fish stocks off the coast of Gaza.

The Old City market in Gaza. Gazans have been praised for their resilience and dignity in the face of hardships resulting from the blockade.

  A scrap metal dealer collects iron from the rubble of houses destroyed in Israel’s 23-day military offensive, which ended on 18 January 2009.

Some 973,600 people are food insecure out of a population of about 1.5 million, more than half of whom are children  .

 An old man sits outside his UNRWA-supplied tent in the Ezbet Abed Rabbo area of northern Gaza.

  With more than 50 percent unemployment in Gaza, sifting through rubble for metal has become for some a means of getting.

 Palestinian Children play at a beach refugee camp in Western Gaza City.