presents:
SIX STORIES FROM MOZAMBIQUE
© 1998 RADIO BRIDGE OVERSEAS TRUST
presents:
SIX STORIES FROM MOZAMBIQUE
© 1998 RADIO BRIDGE OVERSEAS TRUST
In 1992 there was a peace
agreement for the country between the FRELIMO goverment and the
rebel REANAMO group. But before Mocambicans were at war with each
other, foreign forces turned most of the land into a minefield:
the Portuguese colonialists who initially fought FRELIMO, the
Rhodesians who were chasing freedom fighters from their own
country, Zimbabwe, and more recently South African Apartheid
support of RENAMO rebels.
All of them, together with their allies in the former Eastern
bloc and the West are responsible for a situation in which people
in Mozambique daily run the risk of losing a limb or their life
every time they leave their homes.
"I am 16 years old. I
was born here in Songo and my name is Alexandre Sousa.
I stepped on a land mine."
"When I came from school, father tasked me to look for our cattle. I did not know that there were landmines on the way. Maybe the rains had flushed them from the hills."
Norwegian experts have
contracted several hundred Mozambicans and have trained them to
work with metal mine detectors but especially with mine tracker
dogs. These dogs are trained to sniff for dynamite. The
Norwegians say they are trying to make use of simple methods of
mine clearing to enable their Mocambican partners to take over
the project.
Listen / STORY 4 - / 06'24"
"Where death lurks in the soil - Mine clearing in Mozambique"
"Two hours after the
accident I was carried by a man to a checkpoint. From there I was
driven in a car to the hospital in Songo and later from there to
Tete. All the time I was unconscious." Alexandre
Sousa lost his left leg at 16. His father says: "The
mines have to be cleared as soon as possible so that we can move
freely and easily and can go to work without fear."
MORE MOZAMBIQUE STORIES
THE RBO PRODUCTION
TEAM:
Research & Interviews in Mozambique:
Victor Desajado, Emmanuel
Camillo, Fortune Ncube, Klaus Juergen Schmidt
Scripts:
Victor Desajado,
Fortune Ncube, Klaus Juergen Schmidt
RBO-Interns attached
to research at Cahora Bassa:
Holger Bock, Olaf
Krems, Morris Nyakudya
Presenter:
Victor Desajado,
Morris Nyakudya, Simon Nyaude
Translation in
Mozambique:
Victor Desajado,
Emmanuel Camillo, Lucia Rodriguez, Christina Maria Patricio
Technical Supervision
at RBO studio:
Norbert Irmer &
Nenad Kuzmic
Administration &
Logistics:
Jennifer Chiriga
& Dadiray Chigoya
Managing Editor &
Director:
Klaus Juergen
Schmidt
