Landmine clearance on war-torn land needs a helping hand

Statistics show that central Quang Tri province has 6,939 mine victims, of whom 2,598 died and the remainder wounded. About 35 percent of its natural land cannot be used for cultivation as it still contains bombs, mines and unexploded ordnances left over from the war.

Quang Tri suffered the most bombardments during the fierce American war in Vietnam. The province now has a rather high number of victims of landmines and Agent Orange compared to other localities across the country.

Historian Marilym Young, who has spent years studying the US war, said during the fierce war time, at least 40 B52 bombers carrying 30 tonnes of bombs each launched their sorties over Quang Tri skies every day. Between 1962 and 1972, the US army 347 times sprayed defoliants containing dioxin – a lethal chemical - over the province, destroying 44 percent of cultivable land and 43 percent of forest acreage.

No official figures regarding the amount of bombs and toxic chemicals have been released, but war consequences and lingering pains suffered by local people are uncountable.

According to Hoang Dang Mai, director of the Quang Tri provincial Department for External Relations, the province has 6,939 mine victims, of whom 2,598 died and the remainder wounded. About 35 percent of its natural land cannot be restored for cultivation as it still contains bombs, mines and unexploded ordnances left over from the war. Most of the victims hit these ordnances while engaging in agricultural production or digging scrap metals to earn a living.

Since 1989, international organisations have helped Quang Tri detect and destroy more than 107,500 pieces of bombs, mines and unexploded ordnances on a total of 1,051 hectares of land.

Overcoming war aftermath is one of the province’s leading tasks, which should be implemented alongside other socio-economic development tasks. However, budget for landmine clearance is still limited in such a poor locality like Quang Tri. Therefore, the province has called on and made full use of international co-operation to overcome war aftermath and develop local economy.

The province’s landmine clearance and post-clearance development programmes have captured great attention from International organisations. The local administration has given top priority to socio-economic development in post-clearance areas to help local people stabilise their lives and escape poverty. The policy has drawn the participation of international organisations and local people. German SODI organisation helped build three resettlement villages for 222 households in Cam Lo and Trieu Phong districts, while MAG from the UK built a resettlement village for 78 households in Gio Linh district. A resettlement village for 100 families of war victims in Dong Ha town was also built by a US organisation.

Wolfram Schwope, SODI chief representative in Vietnam, said that landmine clearance programmes aim to return safe land for local people to develop production and stabilise their lives. He said to date his organisation has helped detect mines and unexploded ordnances on 630 hectares of land and collected 43,000 pieces. A zoning-off project for the area is in the pipeline. In addition to the three built resettlement villages, he said, SODI will co-ordinate with philanthropists and other organisations to build infrastructure facilities and help local people developed production on safe land.

Greenness has returned to the former battlefield. But no one is certain when innocent children will no longer suffer from life threats caused by explosions of bombs, mines and unexploded ordinances left over from the war told by adults.

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