By Skye Wheeler
MILE 38, Sudan (Reuters) - Seven months pregnant Opayi Marystands half a metre away from a mine made expressly to blowanything over 3 kg to pieces. For her, it's just part of aday's work.
Mary leads an all-female team of deminers working forNorwegian People's Aid (NPA) in one of south Sudan's mostdangerous areas: the civil war battlefield Mile 38.
The location, 38 miles (61 km) from the southern capitalJuba, was on the frontline in a decades-long conflict betweenmainly Christian and animist southern rebels and the Islamistgovernment in Khartoum.
The war, fought over ideology and ethnicity and fuelled byoil, killed 2 million people and displaced 4 million before apeace deal was signed in 2005.
Now, south Sudan's semi-autonomous government, which willhold a referendum on secession in 2011, is trying to rebuild aregion where even the most basic infrastructure is lacking.
Clearing the thousands of mines is an important part ofefforts to rebuild the devastated region, where mined roadshave made travel and transport of goods difficult.
"I was so afraid of my first one," Mary admits. Two yearslater she is now in charge of her group's safety and forexploding the mines taken from this empty scrubland.
"Now I have taken more than 20. I can even hold them withmy hand," Mary grins. She is short and seems all burgeoningbump but walks fast between cordoned off areas.
Under Mary's watch, Joanne Jenty slides a prong into amarked-out area in front of her that she has already wetted. Inthe hot silence of the bush and on her hands and knees, she isfeeling for the side of a mine that she will then delicatelyunearth.
People used to live along this major trade route but havebeen slow to return since the war ended, deterred by a lack ofinfrastructure, worries of a return to fighting and the linesof hidden explosives buried just inches under the earth'ssurface.
The UN Mine Action Office, which coordinates deminingprojects run by dozens of groups, says more than 2,000 peoplehave been killed or injured by mines since the end of the war.The cost for farmers and communities is incalculable, it says.
STILL A STRUGGLE
With a new administration and funds of between $1.5 - $1.7billion a year from the region's share of oil revenues, manysoutherners were expecting dramatic peace dividends forcommunities long alienated from basic services by war.
They have been disappointed. The daily struggle forsurvival has not changed for most rural populations andreturning refugees put more pressure on scant resources. Agovernment study showed around 90 percent see corruption as amajor problem.
And the peace is still shaky.
In December and January, Misseriya tribesmen foughtsouthern soldiers in the Abyei area, an oil-rich regionstraddling northern and southern Sudan. The distribution of oilrevenues and border demarcation remain contentious issues.
But Mary, who fled the war to neighbouring Uganda, believespassionately that peace will hold.
"My work is like a soldier," she explained.
"When we are in training we learn: your first mistake isyour last," she said as she showed her simple bush tent thatcontained a fancy handbag and a bottle of nail polish.
So far, Mary's team and another NPA team have removed 205antipersonnel mines and 96 anti-tank mines from around the mainroad that links neighbouring Uganda to Juba, the capital of avast and wild region that still has no large commercial farmingor factories.
For Mary, who feels her baby move as she works, the jobjust has to be done, inch by gruelling inch in prickling grass.
"We have to work hard to develop our country, even if it ishard," she said. "We have to clear. For my children and forothers."
Mary initially wanted to be a doctor but could not affordthe training. But her pragmatic mind has adapted well toclearing contaminated earth.
A WOMAN'S TOUCH
According to Lado Victor, from Norwegian People's Aid,women learn demining techniques as quickly as men but followprocedures more vigorously. The only complication is pregnancy.
Southerners have traditionally raised large families withup to 10 children, and since the war there is a socialconsensus on the need to repopulate. At any one time, a handfulof the 25-woman team are pregnant, Victor explained.
The women used to have in-camp sitters who would look afterthe babies while they were in the minefields. But the suddenappearance of a rabid dog from the wilderness encouraged NPA toenforce longer maternity leave.
Mary will eventually leave her child with her mother in anearby town. She admits that especially since she becamepregnant for the first time there has been growing pressure onher to stop what many in the traditionally conservative southsee as masculine and dangerous labour.
"A lot of people tell my husband he should stop me," shesaid. "I just don't mind it," she adds.
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say onthe top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )
(Writing by Skye Wheeler; Editing by Alastair Sharp)
