Indian UN Vet Treats Animal Victims of Lebanon War

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Indian UN Vet Treats Animal Victims of Lebanon War

 

October 25, 2006 — By Alistair Lyon, Reuters

KHIAM, Lebanon -- Amal al-Nimr flips a goat on its back in her muddy farmyard in

south Lebanon to show the Indian vet how the shrapnel wound in its leg is

healing.

 

Lieutenant-Colonel Parasanali Bapu, the only veterinary surgeon serving with the

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), applies iodine to the stricken

goat, another casualty of Israel's recent war with Lebanese Hezbollah

guerrillas.

 

When Nimr complains her animals have grown skinny since the conflict, Bapu

supplies deworming medicine.

 

" Because of the stress of the war, the worm load in the stomach increases.

Whatever the animals eat, the worms also eat, " the vet explains.

 

Even before the war, Bapu's free treatment and medicine were in huge demand

among the poor farmers and shepherds in these remote southern pastures, near

Lebanon's border with Israel and Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

 

" We have seen a lot of death and destruction, " he says, estimating that about 60

percent of the animal population was wiped out during the 34-day conflict that

ended on Aug. 14.

 

" People didn't know the war would go on so long. They left their animals and

nobody was able to look after them, " he says, striding through farmyards in a

smartly ironed uniform, oblivious to the manure splashing onto his polished

boots.

 

" Some died in the rubble, some fell prey to wild animals, some died due to

starvation. Those that survived were emaciated. Suddenly after the war they

started diarrhoea and all the gastro-intestinal diseases, " the 43-year-old vet

adds.

 

HERDS HARD HIT

 

Nimr, a voluble woman in a red tracksuit and rubber boots, says she lost 170

sheep and goats and eight cows in the war, a good chunk of the livelihood of her

extended family of 10.

 

" We were running from the shelling, " says Nimr, 38, her eyes flashing. " They

were really hard days. "

 

She snorts with derision when asked if she has received any compensation from

the government or Hezbollah.

 

Unable to afford the fees of private Lebanese vets, she is delighted with Bapu's

work. " We rely on him all the time, " she says. " Everyone says good things about

him. "

 

That kind of testimonial heartens the 670-strong Indian battalion, which sees

humanitarian work as vital to win local support for UNIFIL in a potentially

hostile environment.

 

Major Saurabh Pandey, spokesman for the contingent, believes locals value the

role of the Indian troops, who stayed during the war despite intense bombing and

shelling.

 

During lulls, the Indians delivered food and water to villagers, arranged

evacuations and provided medical care. " This way we have been able to touch

their hearts, " Pandey says at the battalion's headquarters near the village of

Ibl al-Saqi.

 

It may be too early to judge how mainly Shi'ite Muslim southerners view the

expanded UNIFIL force mandated to help the newly deployed Lebanese army police a

weapons-free zone.

 

But at least in the Indian-patrolled area, the shared wartime experience has

brought new signs of warmth, Pandey says.

 

" It was not very obvious before the conflict in certain places, but afterwards

you go to any place and people are smiling and waving. Kids turn up and say,

'Indian, Indian' or 'UN, UN', and they shake hands. It's a very welcome change. "

 

Back on his rounds, Bapu checks a young cow recovering from an operation six

weeks ago during which he removed a six-inch shard of metal from its skull.

" It's not healed completely, but it is picking up ... It was very weak at that

time, " he says.

 

In a murky barn nearby, Bapu and a burly farm boy named Khaled Rajab struggle to

keep a frisky cow still long enough to jab it with antibiotics for an infected

uterus.

 

" They're not keeping it clean, so the infection continues, " Bapu says, blaming

poor hygiene for many such ailments.

 

POSTWAR DANGERS

 

The Israeli-Hezbollah truce has largely held. The Indians, who operate near the

flashpoint Shebaa Farms area on the Golan Heights, say they have seen no sign of

any guerrilla presence. Hezbollah have just " mingled with the masses " , Pandey

says.

 

The guns may be silent, but hundreds of thousands of cluster bomblets sprayed

over south Lebanon in at least 770 Israeli strikes still pose a deadly danger to

humans and animals.

 

Cluster bomb blasts have killed more than 20 people and wounded scores of others

since the war. Bapu says many people have brought him sheep and goats wounded as

they graze.

 

The vet, who returns to Bangalore after a 12-month tour next month, has trained

villagers to give injections and medicine to their animals, skills he hopes they

will retain when he is gone.

 

" After the war, help was pouring in for people to rebuild their houses but no

help came for the animals, " he says.

 

" The greatest satisfaction is I was there with medicines, running around able to

save them. "

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances,

there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in

such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest

we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

William O. Douglas