By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, September 27, 2005

NABATIEH: Hussam Tabaja advances with the ball, goes past his opponent on the court, indifferent to his amputated leg, and scores the first goal in a match that Lebanese society might not be used to seeing. The match was a special one since it took place between the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) for mine clearance and the victims of mines, who have established a club that they call "Mine Survivors."

On one of the courts in the town of Toul in Nabatieh, the Mine Survivors stood, with their replacement limbs, ready to take on the MAG team.

MAG has been working in Lebanon to clear mines since the Israeli withdrawal from the South in 2000.

If one was to ignore the artificial limbs, one would have thought that the match was between two able-bodied sides due to the fine performances given by both teams, in particular the Mine Survivors.

MAG public relations officer, Ali Sheaib, said the group had insisted on holding this football match between the victims of mines and those working to clear them and save people from their danger.

"We are surprised to see that they enjoy the same fitness as the physically healthy, and you cannot differentiate if you did not see the artificial limb," he said.

A mines survivor, Hassan Abboud, whose leg was amputated after he stood on a mine in 1986 in Iqlim al-Tuffah, said: "The injury means nothing to us," adding that last month the team had played a match against a UNIFIL team.

"Man has to realize that life does not stop, and it has to go on," said Abboud, adding he wished that he might have the chance to take part in the Special Olympic Games.

MAG Technical Operation Manager Nicholas Guest said that the South would be clear of mines some time between 2013 and 2015.

However, the National Demining Office and UNIFIL said it would be cleared between 2009 and 2010 without the Blue Line.