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It was around four years ago that thirteen year old Duong Ba Dung was playing in his garden. Odds are it was a day as quiet as most in the small village of An My, when the forgotten American bomb that had lain underground for around 36 years detonated, killing Dung as he played.
An My is a tiny village of some 838 people, most even share the same surname. For them, living with the kind of explosive that cost Duong Ba Dung his life is a daily reality. International NGO, MAG, (the Mines Advisory Group) have identified within the 180 households of An My, 116 areas that are host to the kind of unexploded ordnance, (UXO) which took Dung’s life. In total, around 14 million tons of ordnances - around three times that used by the Allies during WWII - was dropped on Vietnam during the American War. It is estimated that some 10% to 30% of that ordnances failed to detonate at the time, leaving a lethal legacy for those who now farm the land that was once battlefield.
A MAG technician investigates a projectile - Photos: Simon Speakman Cordall
MAG, and organizations like them, are gradually working on the clean up that will leave farming land safe for the purpose it should have always been used for. The Vietnamese government estimates that this could take anywhere up to 100 years, at an annual cost of approximately US$1,015 million. At the moment, MAG’s operations are centered on Quang Tri, Quang Bình and Quang Nam Provinces.
It’s around 7.30am at MAG’s field office in An My and already the adult population are at work, bringing in this year’s harvest, leaving it to their children to come and take MAG’s team to the ordnance they’ve been living with and working around since hostilities ended. Duong Ba Canh, age eight, found a .37mm projectile as he helped his father build a toilet. Its lain half buried at the side of a well used track ever since. Had it been triggered, everything within a thirty meter radius would be leveled. The list goes on. Duong Ba Tien, age twelve, knows a 155 mm Projectile that lies where he grazes his family’s water buffalo. It’s been lying on the same white sand beach since the US withdrew and, if triggered, would leave nothing standing for 150 meters.
Nearby, it’s 40C at MAG’s site at Vinh Linh. To move is to sweat. Here, an area of 30,400 square Meters is to be cleared of the UXO that riddles it. MAG estimates that up to thirty pieces of UXO might be lying underfoot. In time, this will become a rubber plantation, providing a livelihood for up to fourteen families in what is still a poor and isolated region. However, for now, it is the site of MAG’s careful and methodical search for the hidden ordnance that could turn that prospect to tragedy. It’s hard and dangerous work. Not least, in the unforgiving midday sun. However, for De-Miner, Duong Thi Hong, under her heavy boots, helmet and 5kg reinforced body amour, it’s the chance to make a lasting difference to the region in which she now raises her children. “Everyone in my village is very proud of me,” she says “they know that I’m making the land safe for them and for the children to play.”
The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs estimate that around 105,000 civilians fell victim to UXO between 1975 and 2007. Even now, up to 15% of Vietnam’s total surface area is still contaminated by the unexploded bombs of a war that nobody wanted. However, with the help of organizations like MAG, there comes the opportunity to build a longer lasting and infinitely more profound legacy; land that is safe for children to play on.
For further information, access http://www.maginternational.org.
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