Jan
MotiveArt Fragments Competition
Posted under Art, |
A Short Story by Emma Powell
Another one, that was the third one this week, but it was definitely the worst, it has affected so many more people than the rest. The farmers who are harvesting in the fields are setting them off again. It is terrible, the war in this country was finished before I was even born, bit still, nine years later, people are still been killed, injured, paralyzed, losing family, friends and affected in many other ways by the land mines. Why couldn't they have been detonated safely at the end of the war? The effects are still disastrous; the mines were used in the war in order to stunt the movement of the enemy troops but the are still affecting innocent civilians many years later. It's not fair. Why should we still be suffering because of what happened years ago? The war has finished and we are now at peace. People are still dying, in this country, because of the civil wars.
The first one that went off mangled a farmers plough as he ploughed over it, it was a plough that he, unfortunately is not able to replace, all of his money is made off the land, the land that he is no longer able to work. The second one, the other side of the village killed one of the horses dragging the plough, that wasn't so bad, the farmer does have another one but it is still a loss. The mine that was un-earthed this morning, it was terrible it has affected so many people, it was a big one, full of little scatter bombs.
I have heard what happened, people walking past the house have alerted me, I also know almost exactly who was killed. There have been so many people being carried past the windows on stretchers, or limping, all of them injured by the mines or the shrapnel flying away from it. It's a horrible sight. It has killed Mum, Dad and baby Anne, they had all gone for a walk and the farmer had ploughed over the mine, but it had not detonated immediately. It has so far killed at least seven people; people are still searching through the mud and dust in the field.
All of my family gone, killed by one explosion left behind from the civil war nearly 10 years ago. So here I am, alone people keep coming to the door, looking for me; soon they are going to think that I am dead as well. I'm as good as, I cant go out to work, so I cant afford to stay in the house, I can't afford to go to school, I am going to starve probably even before I get kicked out of the house and I will have no-where to go, no-one to look after me. I don't know what to do, I just wish Mum and Dad were still here, they would know what to do. But I suppose, if they were here I wouldn't be in this mess.
