Pictorial Report on Some Humanitarian Mine Action Projects in Vietnam
Since 1993, the interagency U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program has provided well over $40 million to Vietnam to help clear explosive remnants of war (ERW) and landmines left from over 30 years of conflict, educate Vietnamese who live in impacted area about the risks of UXO and landmines, assist survivors of landmine and ERW accidents, and provided equipment to strengthen the national capacity of the Technology Center for Bomb and Mine Disposal (BOMICEN) of the People's Army of Vietnam Engineering Command.
The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, the U.S. Department of Defense's Humanitarian Demining Program, the U.S. Agency for International Development's Leahy War Victims Fund, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have all contributed in this regard. Their efforts have saved lives, helped to speed Vietnam's post-conflict recovery, and contributed to the growing friendly relations between the United States and Vietnam.
In May of 2007, the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement's program manager for Vietnam conducted another in a series of Program Assessment Visits to monitor progress on projects that are supported by this office. Many of the projects are executed by respected non-governmental organizations through Federal grants. Following is a photographic tour of that May visit.
BOMICEN In Action
John Stevens, the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement's program manager for Vietnam,is briefed on BOMICEN's technical abilities and challenges during a visit to their facility outside of Hanoi where they repair and test landmine detectors and bomb locators, using equipment provided by the United States. Since 1993, the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs has provided BOMICEN with some $10 million in equipment to clear landmines and explosive remnants of war,including unexploded cluster munitions, as well as to repair and calibrate that equipment. See the related press release "More Equipment to Clear Landmines and UXO in Vietnam" at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/78487.htm [Photo courtesy of LTC Robert Lucius, USMC, Defense Attaché’s Office, U.S. Embassy, Hanoi.]
A technician demonstrates how BOMICEN tests and calibrates equipment at their maintenance facility near Hanoi. Here, the technician is measuring the capacity of a metal detector to accurately pin-point an inert bomb that has been placed about a meter underground. The large tube that protrudes from the ground in front of the technician enables large items such as bombs to be lowered below ground for such tests. Large bombs that fail to explode on impact can bury themselves up to several meters underground. While they would not normally pose a hazard if left undisturbed by farmers who usually use only the top layer of soil, more extensive disturbance of the ground such as during the laying of a foundation for a building could have tragic consequences even decades after a bomb was dropped. Narrower tubes visible near the edge of the test field are used to test metal detectors on smaller objects such as landmines, unexploded grenades, and unexploded cluster bomblets.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
BOMICEN deminers search for unexploded bombs at a site in Than Hoa province where a paper mill is to be constructed, under the watchful eyes of their supervisors. The deminer (kneeling) in the farther clearance lane is carefully excavating to determine if metal that was detected there is an unexploded bomb or harmless scrap. During the War in Vietnam, U.S. aircraft attacked North Vietnamese anti-aircraft positions at this site. Some of the bombs failed to detonate. The United States has since provided air strike data on all of its missions throughout the former North and South Vietnam in order to help the Vietnamese authorities prioritize and facilitate unexploded bomb clearance.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Lucius (USMC), with the Defense Attaché's Office at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi (lower left), John Stevens (upper left), an unidentified BOMICEN officer (center), and Senior Colonel Nguyen Trong Canh, Director of BOMICEN (far right), examine a chart of the bomb clearance site. The chart precisely details the site's parameters, and the grids within the site that have been cleared or that remain to be cleared. [Photo courtesy of Jonas Alm, Chief Technical Advisor, UXO/Landmine Impact Survey, Veterans for America/Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.]
BOMICEN officers display a pile of harmless metal scraps that were collected during the clearance of the aforementioned bomb site. Standard operating procedures on most ERW and mine clearance sites in Vietnam and around the world, is that all pieces of metal must be positively identified and removed to ensure that any actual explosive hazard has been found and properly dealt with. This is laborious, time-consuming, and expensive -- but it works. The new U.S. HSTAMIDS mine detector that combines a metal detector with ground-penetrating radar and uses algorithms to inform the deminer if the metal found is a specific landmine rather than scrap (see "Major Breakthrough in Landmine Clearance: New Detector Identifies the Real 'Hidden Killers'"at www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2006/71621.htm )has proven to be a cost-effective solution to safely ignoring harmless metal and finding the actual explosives. However it is not yet widely available and while extraordinarily effective in detecting landmines, more must be learned as to how well it would do in differentiating explosive remnants of war from metal scrap.
Senior Colonel Nguyen Trong Canh, Director of BOMICEN (without cap) and two other BOMICEN officers, at a temporary storage pit for explosive remnants of war that were found amidst the aforementioned scrap metal at the bomb site in Thanh Hoa province. This pit contained potentially lethal bomb fuzes,unexploded mortar rounds, and unexploded anti-aircraft ammunition. All were slated for careful transport and safe destruction at a special site elsewhere.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
UXO and Landmine Impact Survey
Sign at an interview site in May 2007 at the District Peoples Committee building in Thuong Loc, Ha Tinh province, announcing that Phase II of an UXO and Landmine Impact Survey is being conducted by BOMICEN and the Veterans for America (formerly Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation), with the support of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. Phase I of this multi-million dollar Survey has already gathered vital data on the relative extant and location of explosive remnants of war and landmines in Quang Tri, Quang Binh, and Ha Tinh provinces and related socio-economic data that are enabling Vietnamese authorities to better prioritize clearance and assistance to the impacted populations. A summary of the findings of Phase I is available at www.veteransforamerica.org/files/vcs/VietnamSurvey_PhaseI_%20FinalReport_04Nov05.pdf Phase II will complete those provinces and also survey Nghe An, Thua Thien Hue, and other provinces thereafter. This Survey is relatively unique in that it incorporates a rapid response by BOMICEN to clear explosive hazards brought to the attention of the surveyors, rather than awaiting the final results. The only other Landmine Impact Survey in the world that includes a rapid response component is in Iraq: the Veterans for America's Information Management and Mine Action Program (IMMAP) is conducting that Survey too. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
Villagers who witnessed U.S. air strikes on military targets in Thuong Loc in what was then North Vietnam during the war, examine a map and describe in detail to a BOMICEN surveyor where they recall the bombs striking, during an intense morning session. These village elders were eager to speak to Vietnamese government officials and proud to be asked to share their valuable memories and oral histories in order to benefit their country. The demographics of the Vietnamese who are interviewed during this Survey vary from village to village, and include women and youths.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
One of the villagers who was interviewed in May 2007 during the Survey, escorts BOMICEN officials to a site, located close to occupied farm houses at present,where an unexploded U.S. bomb is believed to be located. The presence of lush natural vegetation rather than cultivated land so close to farm houses is a strong indicator that the villagers have a genuine concern.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
Most of the ordnance expended by all combatants in Vietnam (Japanese, French, American, North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, and Chinese) spanning World War II through the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979, did detonate during combat, of course. Within a few meters of the previous UXO site, a U.S. bomb left this crater which is now being used as a pond to raise fish.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
Based on the Survey interviews conducted that morning in Thoung Loc, a BOMICEN team prepares a grid to search for unexploded bombs or cluster bomblets ("bombies") in a high-priority field where cattle graze and soccer is played, adjacent to the village.[Photo courtesy of Jonas Alm, Chief Technical Advisor, UXO/Landmine Impact Survey, Veterans for America/Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.]
Then, a BOMICEN technician begins sweeping for unexploded bombs. He is purposely sweeping just outside the clearance lane too, in order to ensure no ground is missed or left unchecked when more lanes are created on each side of the existing lane. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
Then,another BOMICEN deminer excavates where metal (will it prove to be harmless scrap or a dangerous bomb?) has been detected. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
Other UXO Clearance Projects
Sign near an EOD Rapid Response clearance site in the Le Thuy district of Quang Binh province, operated by MAG (Mines Advisory Group), and funded by the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. MAG (www.mag.org.uk/), one of several non-governmental organizations that carry out mine action work for the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in Vietnam and other countries, is based in Manchester, United Kingdom. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
MAG deminers using a large loop detector to search for deeply buried unexploded bombs and other ERW at a large, static clearance site in Quang Binh province near the coast. During the war, anti-aircraft positions were located at this site in what was then North Vietnam. MAG is shifting the focus of its operations from the clearance of large sites such as this one to mobile rapid response clearance which is enabling it to remove several magnitudes more of ERW for the same expenditure of effort.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
An unexploded white phosphorus shell and two unexploded anti-aircraft rounds discovered by MAG at this site and placed in a temporary collection point. They would be carefully transported to a destruction pit later. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
John Stevens chats with two representatives of PeaceTrees Vietnam (www.peacetreesvietnam.org/ ), near an UXO clearance site they are operating in the Hoang Ha district of Quang Tri province along the border with Laos.Tran Quang, a UXO/Landmine Impact Survey program officer from the Veterans for America who assisted Stevens throughout his visit, observes. The sign behind them, which bears the U.S. and Vietnamese flags, indicates that this site is being cleared by PeaceTrees Vietnam with the support of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.[Photo courtesy of Quang Lê, PeaceTrees Vietnam.]
PeaceTrees Vietnam technicians at the UXO clearance site in Hoang Ha district. PeaceTrees Vietnam has cleared landmines and ERW and rendered the full spectrum of humanitarian mine action assistance throughout Quang Tri province for many years. This particular bomb site was on a path that once made up part of the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" network. A farmer who lives within a few meters of this bomb site wished to cultivate it. PeaceTrees Vietnam quickly responded to his call for help. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
Close-up of an unexploded 250-pound bomb in the pit at this PeaceTrees Vietnam clearance site.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
UXO/Mine Risk Education
A visit with first graders at a primary school in Hoang Ha district that receives UXO/mine risk education instruction, designed by Catholic Relief Services ( www.crs.org/our_work/where_we_work/overseas/asia/vietnam/index.cfm ), as part of their curriculum. Catholic Relief Services has created mine risk education (MRE) booklets and other MRE materials for use throughout Quang Tri province in cooperation with Vietnamese educational authorities, with support from the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. The former U.S. firebase at Khe Sanh was in Hoang Ha district, just a few kilometers away. This district experienced extensive fighting during the Vietnam and remains significantly affected by UXO that originated from all combatants. [Photo courtesy of Tran Quang, Veterans for America/Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.]
The first grade teacher discusses a classroom poster that warns about the risks of playing or tampering with UXO.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
UXO/Mine Survivors Assistance
This 12-year old boy (seated in wheelchair) just returned from the hospital to his home in Huc commune, Huong Ha district in Quang Tri. Previously he had received UXO/mine risk education at school, however when coming home after class one day, he encountered a neighboring friend of 15 who was digging for scrap metal in order to sell it. The 15-year old struck an object which exploded, killed the older boy instantly, and sprayed the 12-year old with shrapnel which blinded him in one eye, perforated his intestines, and severely damaged his legs. Clear Path International assisted with medical expenses, hospital fees, family transportation during his treatment, and provided the wheelchair. Clear Path International also provided bereavement money to the family of the 15-year old. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
This Vietnamese farmer and his wife (not pictured) who live in the Cam Lo district in Quang Tri province, both in their 80s now, lost their eldest child to an ERW accident several years ago. Traditional Vietnamese culture expects the eldest child to assume the responsibility for their parents' well-being at retirement. This particular tragedy threatened to make their final years a grim struggle for survival. Fortunately, Clear Path International (www.cpi.org/index.php) stepped in and bought them a cow which will provide milk and help them to till their plot of land. Clear Path International, one of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement's grantees in Vietnam, not only assists survivors of ERW and landmine accidents, it also renders a wide range of critical support to victims' families whose lives have also been devastated by such accidents.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
A technician working in the prosthetics and orthotics lab at the hospital in Dong Ha town, Quang Tri province, which provides artificial limbs and physical rehabilitation for amputees, including those who have lost limbs due to accidents with landmines and ERW. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation's (VVMF) Project RENEW (www.vvmf.org/index.cfm?SectionID=21 ) program in Quang Tri province has provided valuable tools and other assistance to this lab. VVMF, which is engaged in all manner of humanitarian mine action endeavors in Quang Tri, hopes to be able to support a mobile prosthetics and orthotics team who could go to where the patients are rather than have patients make the difficult trip to the hospital. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
Some of the artificial limbs and feet that have been created by the prosthetics and orthotics lab at the hospital in Dong Ha.[Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State.]
Learn More
To learn more about the efforts of the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program in Vietnam and around the world, visit www.state.gov/t/pm/wra and consult the "To Walk the Earth in Safety" annual reports, produced by the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement at www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rpt/walkearth/.
Article donated to UXOInfo.com by John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept. of State. Source:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/b/86884.htm
