Ahmed Najem

I am Ahmed Yassin Najem from Iraq. I am a cluster munitions survivor. I was hurt in 1991 in Bassra. I was walking around one of the villages in the area when I came across a strange object on the road, it looked like a can. I picked it up to see what it was and it exploded in my hand; I fell to the ground. My relatives were with me; they rushed over and carried me off to hospital in one of their cars.

The lower part of my forearm was dangling. They took me straight to the operation theatre. They amputated my arm from above the elbow because they feared the consequences otherwise. The government did not help me in any way, except for the operation. At that time there were no NGOs in Iraq. I suffered enormously in the early days after my incident. After a while, and with the help of my family and friends, I was able to lead a normal life in the community. I decided to map out my future myself. I went into business, got married and had five children. I call on governments, international organisations and donor countries to expedite the decision to ban the use, production and stockpiling of cluster munitions and to help survivors in the near future, Insh’allah.