Mr. Matin is a regional manager for the UN Mine Clearing and Planning Agency in Kabul which has 15 mine-action organizations, including Halo, coordinating some 4,700 staff across Afghanistan.

Statistics, for Mr. Matin,  bear no emotions.  His

families. I've had to look at their wives and children. It's totally unfair and that's why the Afghans themselves have started a campaign to ban landmines."

If Mr Latif is a bureaucrat, he also has a strong heart.  "We Muslims think that de-mining is part

office covers seven provinces around Kabul in which approximately 1.1 million unexploded bombs and mines have already been cleared. In these de-mining operations, about 100 Afghans have died. More than 500 have been injured,   many   of   whom

of our Holy War - it's a 'jihad' against the invisible enemies of Afghanistan. Yes, of course, we believe if we die de-mining, we will go to paradise."

Which is hopefully where Tamim now resides. His solemn   mother  produces

return to the minefields to work once their wounds are healed.

The thousands of other Afghan mine victims are a kind of limbless army. They queue at the Mirweis hospital in Kandahar for artificial legs.

two photographs of him. In the first, he stands in his de-mining clothes, at home, in front of a net curtain, bearded and - you only have to look into his eyes - frightened. In the other photograph, he stands on a mountainside in dark clothes, every inch an Afghan waiting for martyrdom.

They watch another small army of prosthesis specialists carving and shaping the legs and arms of future victims. They stand in the darkened ruins of this grim, hot city. But it is the cluster bomb - the newest

Mr Latif acknowledges that mine producers have helped his organization with funds and equipment. But it is the Afghans themselves who have to do the dirty work. "The strongest     support    we

and deadliest of Afghanistan's hidden mines - that absorbs the work of Abdul Latif.

"The coalition forces claimed that only 5 per cent fail to explode but we think the figure is nearer to 15 per cent," he says. "Just a few

need is for these people to stop producing the mines and cluster bombs," he says.

Just for the record, two American companies made the vicious little munitions that killed

days ago, three children were wounded. One of them threw this bomblet at another. She thought it was a toy. The trouble with the BLUs is that they go underground - they caused our two most recent    fatalities   among

Tamim and his colleague. One is Olin Ordnance of Downey, California. The other is Alliant Tech Systems Inc of Hopkins, Minnesota. They were awarded a contract in 1992 for 9,598 cluster bombs -  a total of  almost

de-miners.

"I've seen very, very bad tragedies. I have taken the dead bodies of my own colleagues to their      

two million BLUs - to replace the same type of weapons that were used up in the Gulf War the year before. Cluster bombs not only kill, it seems. They are also profitable.