<i>The Mine-Strewn Paradise</i>

The prize for the best journalistic work, awarded by the State Television and Radio Company since 2004, was presented to the journalist from Chernihiv Serhii DZIUBA for his book The Mine-Strewn Paradise published by “Chernihivski oberehy.” The book tells the stories of Ukrainian peacemakers who have saved our sailors from pirates, cleared Lebanese territories from mines, protected the most important objects in the Iraqi town of Al-Kut under six hours of heavy fire, and risked their lives in Kosovo, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Georgia…

This topic isn’t new, but the book came as bombshell. How did you manage to collect such sincere and true stories about people whom you hadn’t known before?

“The people in the book go from soldiers to lieutenant generals. I’m a captain in the reserve. I know about military service from my own experience. That is why we were speaking one and the same language and quickly understood each other. Those were really sincere confessions about various issues, including the burning ones — about the soldiers killed because of the commanders’ mistakes, about the relations with the local people whose attitude to the peacekeepers varied. After the book had been published, I was approached by many people who were impressed by the book, for whom it cut to the heart. I was also approached by researchers who only started studying the history of the world peacekeeping operations; it was important for them to know the details of many operations and to hear the witnesses.

“The comments of two people were especially important for me: the one of my friend, the writer and Afghan war veteran Vasyl Slapchuk whose destiny made me study this topic; and the one of Lieutenant General Anatolii Sobor, who was the head of the Ukrainian forces in Iraq. I met him after the book had been published. His review was the shortest and the most valuable one: ‘Everything is true!’”

There are twelve characters in your book and hundreds of stories: tragic and joyful, sad and happy, heroic and mundane. Which of them struck you most?

“Probably it’s the story of the friendship between a five-year-old Iraqi girl Bitul and Major Andrii Antoniuk. They met in a military hospital where Andrii worked as an interpreter and little Bitul was sitting next to her sick aunt since this orphan didn’t have any other place to go [as her town had been destroyed]. Among the suffering and tortured people the Arabian girl found a savior who told her tales from One Thousand and One Nights, taught her the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian songs. The little Bitul amazed everybody when she sang “Nese Halia Vodu” at their parting. They keep in touch through correspondence now. The girl grew up but she didn’t forget her friends. I placed the photo of Major Antoniuk holding the girl in his arms on the cover of my book. Their friendship symbolizes the peacekeeping mission in which the Ukrainian soldiers and officers have been taking part.”

The Mine-Strewn Paradise is your 27th book. Before you wrote poetry and humoristic books, children’s books, radio plays. What’s next? Have you exhausted the topic?

“It has just started. After the book had been published, people who served in Angola, Egypt and Vietnam approached me. They want their stories to be heard, too. That is why it’s too early to finish with this topic. I am currently working on the continuation of the book.”