HRP hosts symposium on civilian harm caused by armed conflict

Harvard Law School - November 12, 2013

Kenneth Rutherford was working as a humanitarian aid worker in Somalia in 1993. He was driving with a colleague through a rural area near the city of Mogadishu on a clear, blue day when his vehicle hit a landmine. The explosion tore through the vehicle.
Rutherford looked to his colleague to his right, who was black, and saw that he had been turned white because he was covered in dust from the explosion. Rutherford's legs were so badly damaged that both would later have to be amputated below the knee.
"I was on my deathbed on the rocky, hard, Somali ground," Rutherford recounted for a Harvard Law School audience last week. "Blood was running down both of the backs of my legs, blood was coming out of my mouth and onto my shirt."
But he did not despair.
"I can still smell and taste my own blood, standing before you right now. But in my heart, I remember like yesterday, I was blazing with the munificent power of gratitude for everything that life has given me," Rutherford said. "I never miss an opportunity to praise God for being above ground."

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