It has been reported that Vietnam still has more than 29 million tonnes of unexploded ordinance (UXO). US statistics reveal that as many as 97 million tonnes of cluster munitions were used in Vietnam out of the total of at least 383 million tonnes scattered in Southeast Asia from 1965 to 1975.

Laos is the world’s country most affected by cluster bombs. Vietnam is the second most affected country but has a population 12 times larger than that of Laos. This means Vietnamese people, especially those in rural areas, are much more vulnerable to the lethal weapons.

While the central province of Thua Thien-Hue ranks 20^th in the list of 20 provinces that are the most affected by leftover UXO, much of it is from cluster bombs – BLU-26. Such bombs spread bomblets over wide areas, a high percentage of which remain unexploded.