55 Cluster Bombs Removed from Rice Field in Central Vietnam

Members of the Norwegian-funded ordnance clearance project RENEW in Quang Tri Province on May 31 safely removed 55 cluster bomb sub-munitions from a paddy field that could have caused huge devastation. The team found the US-made BLU-24 bomblets in four metal containers just 30 centimeters below the surface. RENEW experts have detected 345 cluster bombs and 32 other items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the same village in Cam Lo District the past three months, clearing more than 1.6 million square meters. One 45-year-old member of the project was killed last month when he was leading a team to survey a cluster bomb site in Quang Tri and one bomb suddenly went off. He died at a local hospital. Another member was injured. RENEW, known officially as Restoring the Environment and Neutralizing the Effects of the War, is counted among the most effective international groups working toward clearing UXO left over from the Vietnam War and helping victims in central Vietnam. Quang Tri Provice in particular was the hardest hit by the American bombings. The province was a center for American military bases during the peak of the Vietnam War and a principle battleground during the 1968 Tet Offensive. An estimated 400,000 pieces of UXO remain buried across 480,000 hectares of land in Quang Tri. They can be found in residential areas, gardens and even under the floors of houses. Across Vietnam, UXO still threatens a fifth of land mass and explosions occur frequently, killing more than 1,500 people every year and maiming and injuring 2,200 more, according to official data. (Thanh Nien June 2)