“Lethal toys”- this is the name of the film produced by the “Shoghakat”
television network. The “InterNews” NGO has also aided the television
network in making the film. The author of the film is Tigran
Paskevichyan (Director: Ara Shirinyan, Author of Screenplay: Susanna
Petrosyan, cameraman: Robert Kharazyan). The film is based on
photographer German Avagyan’s show entitled “Lethal Toys”. Two years
ago, when German Avagyan was still working on his project, he met Artak
and Hakob at the special school for children with eye problems. The
boys had been blinded due to the explosion of a mine. The photographer
got emotional. It turned out that there had been many cases like the
one mentioned above during the past ten years: “I understood that the
war that had ended a long time ago is still going on and will continue
so long as there are mine fields and unsupervised ammunition”, says
German Avagyan. His searches led him to Karabagh and the regions close
to the border. He searched, found and filmed nearly 50 children injured
from the mines and missiles. He visits his heroes and films them every
year. “They are growing up physically and mentally. They are getting
accustomed to their defection and they are trying to overcome the
difficulties of life.” The film is about those children and a sort of
warning/precaution for all children who are not secure from missiles
and mines, in other words, the “lethal toys”. “Children start to
recognize the world by getting to know the environment they live in.
They have an amazing way of getting involved in everything, pick up
something they have found and examine it. They tear apart and go deeper
into items which they know that may cause damage. Even if a child does
not die from a mine explosion, nonetheless, he loses sense of sight,
damages the face, hands and feet,” says the film’s photographer/hero.
Before producing this film, German intended on writing a book, a
“unique manual”. He had foreseen putting a picture of a child on the
first page of the book and presenting his “lethal toy”/weapon on the
next page, a photograph and a significant reference. The book was not
published due to lack of financial means.
Since 1995, the “Halo Trust Humanitarian Mine Clearing” NGO has started
a project aimed towards clearing the mines, preparing special equipment
for clearing mines in Karabagh. Starting from 2000, the “Halo Trust”
NGO has found and cleared 2424 counter-infantry mines, 1153
counter-tank mines, 9459 mines which have not yet been exploded, 17,998
casual ammunition, and 84,491 small diameter mines. The NGO has cleared
7,000,000 kilometers of mines. However, as stated in the film, “nearly
50-60 people die from mines in Karabagh every year. Since 1993, 1000
people have died from mine explosions and one third of the deceased are
children and adolescents under the age of 20. The war is still going
on.”