Description

Bart Weetjens with reporter Alexis Bloom
"In the village of Malpoolenge in Mozambique, there was one mine
accident near the water pit, and the whole village moved away from their homes to live in a refugee camp … In the end they only found three more mines. So, a total of four mines in the vicinity of the water pit made 25,000 people move away from their normal habitat."

As director of the Belgian APOPO demining operation, Bart Weetjens witnesses every day the unique abilities of the African giant pouched rat. But he also sees the lasting effect land mines can leave on communities and people. In this interview with FRONTLINE/World reporter Alexis Bloom, he talks about how one land mine incident can force an entire community to disperse. He also addresses the obstacles he faced in getting the program running and argues that rats are amisunderstood species.