(21 Jun 1996) Farsi/Nat

For years now, rival factions in Afghanistan have been fighting a civil war - a war which continues to claim lives.

Possibly the greatest number of deaths and injuries are caused by the war's most lethal legacy - the estimated 10 (m) land mines scattered across the country.

Foreign aid agencies are now coming to the rescue - and APTV reports on how they are helping the Afghans clear these deadly remnants of the war.

One of Kabul's scores of criss-crossing frontlines.

The devastated houses a testimony to the nearly 17 years of conflict that have turned the capital into Afghanistan's most bloody battleground.

There is no area of Kabul left untouched by the bombs, bullets and grenades that the warring factions have unleashed on each other.

The onslaught continues periodically but in some parts of the capital the heaviest fighting has died down in the last few months.

Some of Kabul's refugees have even begun to return home.

But these Kabulis face a hidden danger - land mines.

There are an estimated 10 (m) million mines strewn across the country.

With no maps of where they were placed, the mines have transformed Kabul into an uncharted mine field.

At least 22 square kilometres of the capital have been mined.

A fact that Muhammed Javid, for one, was unaware of when he arrived home.

SOUNDBITE: (Farsi)
When the fighting started here, people fled. When the fighting got less, everyone came home - including me, I came back, not knowing they'd mined everything. I came to rebuild my home but stepped on a mine.
SUPER CAPTION: Muhammed Javid, mine victim

The British-based Halo Trust is one aid organisation that is helping Afghans to clear their country of these deadly devices.

It trains them not only to trace mines and dispose of them but also to neutralise the ammunition debris from the fighting.

All over the capital, unexploded RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) wait like time bombs among the rubble.

The task of clearing them - and the millions of mines - is a deadly one.

SOUNDBITE: (Farsi)
Yes here everyday people come back to build their house again and we mind because there is a lot of mine. During the clearing of mine they can't come back in their house because it's very dangerous and I think they will lose their lives, they will lose their children, they will lose their legs because it's very dangerous area and I think that it's better for them to stay their place where they now live. After a few months when we tell them to come back in their house, they can come back in their house.
SUPER CAPTION: Abdul Wasay, Lt. Col. Supervisor of Halo Trust teams

At this orthopaedic clinic in Kabul, the cost of Afghanistan's unmarked minefields is clear.

Many of the victims were injured after they returned home to restart their lives.

And many of the victims are children.

Last May, 17 out of the 29 victims in Kabul were children.

It's a toll that is too high for a country that has yet to drag itself out of its cycle of internecine warfare nearly six years after the Russian troops withdrew.

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