Low Awareness on Unexploded Bombs Costs Lives

Many people have been killed by leftover unexploded ordnance, with the blame often falling on careless people who collect and try to defuse the bombs themselves. Five people were killed and ten were injured in an explosion at the Van Phu residential area in Ha Dong District on the outskirts of Hanoi in March. It is reported that a scrap collector had brought a bomb home and was sawing it to collect the metal. On May 14, three men in Phu Yen Province found a bomb by a river and decided to saw it open to use the explosive inside to catch fish. They triggered the explosion and were killed immediately. A survey done by the Technology Centre for Bomb and Mine Disposal in 2002 showed that 9,284 over 10,511 communes in Vietnam still had unexploded ordnance and about 2,000 people died and injured in uncontrolled explosions each year, 38% of which were children. Nguyen Viet Hung, a scrap collector in Hanoi said he had discovered various warheads but he had never bought those. "I have saw many people lost their limbs from sawing the bombs. Not to mention that I'd face a huge fine if I were caught by the authorities," he said. According to the survey, 30% of the explosion was caused by careless scrap collectors, 38% were caused by clueless children who though the bombs were toys and the rest were triggered by accident. The Red Cross Organization in Vietnam have worked with Quang Tri and Quang Binh provinces since 2009 and Thua Thien-Hue Province since 2014 to raise awareness over the dangers posed by unexploded ordnance. In the past five years, the authorities have carried out programs to raise people's awareness and search for the unexploded ordnance. The prime minister ordered the Ministry of Defense to help the National Mine Action Centre to amend the legal documents on management over leftover unexploded ordnance. The Ministry of Public Security asked local police to work with authorities to carry out more inspections and strictly deal with who people who illegally store and remove the bombs. (http://www.dtinews.vn/ June 2)