LANDMINES

This is so terrible that I can’t believe no-one’s screaming at Detta about it.

When I got off the bike at the Golan Heights, I started talking to local women, and so lost the group for a bit. They were wandering round the bombed out villages (left by Israel in 1967: never rebuilt as “a statement” the locals tell me), taking photos, and – because the organisers in Syria were men and there weren’t enough toilets – crouching in bushes. Someone from the organising team saw them and yelled: “Come back! Come back! There are LANDMINES in there!”.

Recap: WE WERE NOT TOLD THERE WERE LANDMINES IN A VILLAGE WE WERE VISITING.

Perhaps Esma al-Assad should follow Diana’s example more closely.