|
Georgia Diary
March 25 - 29, 2002
|
We have had two weeks of EOD courses and now it is exam time. All the Field Officers are between 30 - 35 years old but they are nervous, like teenagers before school exams. All of them are good because they have 4 - 5 years experience behind them and are familiar with the work. But our instructor says “If you think that you know everything about UXO then you know nothing about that...” And we all agree with him.
I have to say that we learnt many new things about UXO over the last two weeks.
The political situation is not stabilising yet. Last week in the Gali region four Russian peacekeepers were kidnapped. We watched on TV the whole process of their release. One thing I do not understand. How such peacekeepers can defend people if they get kidnapped so easily. I understand when civilians get kidnapped it is because they are unprotected and not trained.
Thinking about that I made some of my own conclusions - some of the peacekeepers have bandannas on their heads. Maybe the kidnappers mistook them for girls and decided to steal their braids, an old custom in the Caucasus? Yes, thats it! And later when the kidnappers realised that the “braids” were male they were not interested...
Ali Makhmatkhanov
Crusher Field Officer
|
|
|