Key developments
since March 1999: Five internationally funded landmine/UXO programs are
underway, with several new projects started in 1999 and 2000. Vietnamese
officials have confirmed continuing production of antipersonnel mines, but have
also said Vietnam “will never export” mines.
Mine Ban Policy
Vietnam has not acceded to the 1997 Mine Ban
Treaty and appears to have no intention of doing so in the near future.
However, the past several years have seen an apparent thawing in Vietnam’s
policy and attitudes towards landmines, to the point where one official could
tell an international forum in early 1999 that Vietnam’s acceptance of the
treaty is “a matter of time, not of
principle.”[1]
Queen Noor of Jordan visited Vietnam in October 1999 and spoke to
high-ranking government officials in support of the Mine Ban
Treaty.[2] Chuck Searcy of the
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF), who coordinated the queen’s
visit, said, “Three years ago, this level of discussion in the government
would have been unthinkable.... This is a window of opportunity for more
cooperation. I hope the door will soon be open much
wider.”[3]
Until recently, the People’s Army of Vietnam exercised complete control
over mine policy. That position is now in flux, as various government
ministries are involved in different aspects of landmine use, clearance, and
survivor assistance. Improved relations with neighboring countries have
weakened the greatest military justifications for Vietnamese mine use. Efforts
are underway to create a government steering committee on landmines or a
national mine action center that would carry out a cohesive national
policy.[4]
An internal Ministry of Foreign Affairs document provided to Landmine Monitor
states that Vietnam did not sign the Mine Ban Treaty for reasons including the
policies of other countries and because “mines are a type of defensive
weapon that we still
need.”[5] The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs views the Ottawa process as “an important effort aimed at
preventing the use of mines. But it is still not a comprehensive way to deal
with all angles of this multifaceted problem.” The government
“supports working to restrict the use of antipersonnel mines and condemns
the indiscriminate use of mines to massacre civilians.” However, the ban
treaty “does not yet adequately consider the various defensive security
needs of different countries.” At present, Vietnam prefers to let other
non-signatories take the lead in “reducing the pressure” to sign the
treaty, while “simultaneously making use of technical assistance and
funding for clearing mines and assisting mine
victims.”[6] Although
Vietnam has not acceded to the treaty, it continues to examine and consider it
closely.[7]
Vietnam did not participate as an observer in the First Meeting of States
Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Maputo in May 1999. It has attended at least
one of the ban treaty intersessional meetings in Geneva – on mine
clearance in September 1999. Vietnam was one of 20 nations to abstain on the
vote on the December 1999 UN General Assembly resolution in support of the Mine
Ban Treaty.
Vietnam signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981, although
it has never ratified. Vietnam did not attend the First Annual Conference of
States Parties to CCW Amended Protocol II (Landmines) in Geneva in December
1999. Vietnam is a member of the Conference on Disarmament.
Given the sensitivity of the issue, the NGOs who make up the Landmines
Working Group in Hanoi have chosen to focus largely on demining, mine education,
and victim assistance, rather than mine ban
advocacy.[8]
Production
A Ministry of Defense official confirmed in March
2000 that Vietnam continues to produce mines, a policy that comes under the
purview of the ministry’s Institute for the Study of Weapons Production.
No further details were
available.[9] The only mine
confirmed by external sources to have been produced in the 1990s is the
“apple mine,” actually a recycled version of the BLU-24 bomblet
dropped by the U.S. during the Vietnam
War.[10] Vietnam produced many
types of antipersonnel mines in the past, mostly copies of U.S., Chinese, and
Soviet mines.[11]
Transfer
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
“Vietnam never has exported and never will export
mines.”[12] This
statement may be technically correct if “export” excludes
Vietnam’s extensive and well documented mine use in Cambodia during its
1979-1990 occupation. There is no evidence that Vietnam has transferred mines to
Cambodia since the early 1990s at the
latest.[13] The MOFA statement
that it “never will export mines” is the most explicit policy
statement on this subject of which Landmine Monitor is aware.
Ministry of Trade guidelines formally prohibit the import or export of all
types of “weapons, ammunition, explosives, [and] military technical
equipment.”[14] Despite
these prohibitions, there is an active illegal trade in war-era explosives, with
smuggling to China, Cambodia, and elsewhere. Ethnic groups in Burma report
finding Vietnamese-made copies of U.S. M-14 mines on the Thai-Burma border.
These mines are trafficked by private Thai middlemen to the border from Cambodia
or from Vietnam itself.[15]
There are also unconfirmed reports of Vietnamese-made mines found in
Angola.[16]
Stockpiling and Destruction
The size and content of Vietnam’s stockpile
of antipersonnel is not known. The Ministry of Defense Mine Technology Center is
in charge of destroying stocks of “tens of thousands” of pre-1975
U.S. and Vietnamese mines that are no longer safe to keep. In 2000, the army
plans to destroy 2,000 tons
alone.[17] Usable mines and
other explosives are presumably kept or “recycled.”
Use
There is no evidence of any new use of mines in
Vietnam. The army last laid mines in significant numbers during border conflicts
with Cambodia and China in the late 1970s and during Vietnam’s occupation
of Cambodia from 1979 to 1990.
Vietnam reserves the right to use mines “for defensive purposes”
due to the “specific circumstances” of national security.
“Mines continue to be a low-cost and effective defensive weapon...that
must not be lacking to carry out the right of legitimate
self-defense.”[18]
Vietnam’s current improved relations with its neighbors would appear to
make renewed use improbable for the foreseeable future.
The Landmine/UXO Problem
Vietnam remains heavily contaminated by landmines
and unexploded ordnance (UXO). According to the Ministry of Defense,
antipersonnel mines account for only 2-3% of the debris, and only in limited
areas. UXO makes up 97-98% of the total, scattered throughout “all 61
provinces and major
cities.”[19] For this
reason, the figure of 3.5 million mines (as distinct from UXO) remaining in
Vietnam, cited by the U.S. State Department and United Nations, vastly
understates the true extent of the
problem.[20] Among the UXO, U.S.
40mm M-79 grenades and BLU 26/36 cluster bombs or “bombies” are held
to be the most deadly and are responsible for a significant number, if not the
majority, of recent
casualties.[21] The Vietnamese
term for landmines, bom-min, specifically includes these types of UXO as
well.
Vietnamese government sources claim that “at least 5%” of
Vietnamese territory has been affected by mines and UXO, or a total of 16,478
km² (5,932 square
miles).[22] Bui Minh Tam,
director of the Mine Technology Center in Hanoi, estimates that 350,000 tons of
bom-min remain hidden in Vietnam, more than 2% of the wartime
total.[23]
Quang Tri province, which surrounds the former DMZ, is often assumed to be
the most affected region in the
country.[24] This is not
necessarily the case, as no comprehensive survey has yet been carried out.
Quang Tri is certainly badly affected, but other provinces are as well,
particularly in border areas.
Large numbers of mines remain in northern and southern provinces from the
border conflicts with China and Cambodia in the late 1970s and 1980s. The
Vietnamese army is believed to possess reasonably complete records of the
location of known minefields, but this information is not publicly available.
Many U.S. Army records also remain classified or difficult to access as well.
None of these records include UXO and remote-delivered mines, which according to
American veterans were used heavily around the former Khe Sanh combat base and
DMZ.[25] Certain areas that
were heavily bombed, for example Cu Chi district outside Ho Chi Minh City or the
road between Hanoi and the port of Haiphong, contain much higher concentrations
of UXO than elsewhere. But bombs and shells can turn up anywhere.
UXO contamination is particularly high around military bases, near the former
DMZ, and along roads that suffered heavy U.S. bombardment. The most heavily
affected provinces in the south are reportedly Bien Hoa, Dong Nai and Binh
Phuoc, all lying north or east of Ho Chi Minh
City.[26] During construction
of a bridge in north-central Quang Binh province in March 2000, army engineers
uncovered 700 small fragmentation bombs and “thousands” of other UXO
in a single site near the start of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The captain of the
army demining unit at the site told reporters that the area has “the
largest density of UXO in
Vietnam.”[27]
Surveys and Assessment
No nationwide survey has been conducted.
Vietnamese officials are aware of the necessity of clearer information before
larger-scale clearance can take place. Quang Tri province’s proposal for a
new “Mines Awareness Program,” actually a comprehensive pilot mine
action strategy, calls for a Level I survey to be conducted in at least one
district.[28] The Ministry of
Defense Mine Technology Center has expressed interest in conducting a national
survey, but it has no budget to carry it out and is unable as a military
institute to receive foreign
funding.[29]
Mine Action Funding
Nationally, the Ministry of Defense estimates that
complete clearance would take at least ten years, at a cost ranging anywhere
from $4-15 billion.[30] The
Vietnamese Government claims to have spent “hundreds of billions of dong
each year” (approximately $10-50 million) on military demining since the
end of the war.[31] At present,
there is no line-item allocation in the national budget for mine and UXO
clearance, although certain government officials are working to change this.
Ministry of Defense officials claim to be limited by a lack of
funding.[32]
A central government policy governing use of mine action funds is still in
the process of formation; at present, funds are available for
“socio-economic development”
only.[33] When mines or UXO are
discovered during construction projects, the construction company covers the
cost of clearance. In order to open new economic zones along the Chinese border,
the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has a “small” budget
for demining in six northern
provinces.[34] Vietnam’s
fledgling local NGO (or semi-GO) sector has not yet been active in landmine
work. Nor has Vietnam provided funds for mine action in Cambodia, despite its
extensive past involvement in mine laying there.
Since 1997, and in a few cases earlier, international NGOs and bilateral
donors working in Vietnam have provided assistance to demining efforts and
mine/UXO victims. Official policy “encourages making use of all sources of
foreign funding in order to help in [mine clearance].... Naturally, because
of economic conditions, the budget for this work is still
limited.”[35] Vu Xuan
Hong, director of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), says,
“Vietnam is able to receive certain [types of] assistance like equipment,
funding to demine ourselves, technical training, and assistance to
victims.”[36] However,
mine and UXO action must be carried out “according to our internal
strengths.”[37]
VUFO and its sub-department, the People’s Aid Coordinating Committee
(PACCOM), are the contact agencies in the government for NGOs interested in
landmine and UXO work. Bilateral aid is handled through the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Ministry of
Defense,[38] with the frequent
involvement of MPI. All NGO and bilateral donor projects must be approved by
the central government, in what can be a time-consuming and difficult
process.
Four internationally funded mine/UXO programs are currently underway in
central Vietnam’s Quang Tri province, as well as one in neighboring Thua
Thien-Hue. In all cases, projects are carried out in cooperation with the
provincial government, or People’s Committee, with the support of
national-level authorities. Quang Tri’s in-kind contributions, while not
officially listed in project budgets, have been substantial. The first
assistance to Quang Tri, including metal detectors and other technical
equipment, was provided from 1994-98 by members of the Landmine Working Group in
Hanoi. Working group members have also published books and pamphlets for public
education.
The Berlin-based NGO, SODI (Solidaritaetsdienst), has carried out demining
and resettlement projects in Quang Tri since 1996, predominantly funded by the
German Foreign Ministry. SODI works in cooperation with a professional
clearance company from the former East Germany, GERBERA, on a nonprofit basis.
Total funding from 1996-99 has been $850,000; an expansion is
planned.[39]
PeaceTrees Vietnam, a project of the US-based Earthstewards Network that
“plants trees where mines used to be,” also began work in Quang Tri
in 1996. A Landmines Education Center outside the provincial capital of Dong Ha
opened in September 1998. Total funding has been $595,000 through the end of
1999. PeaceTrees’s UXO clearance is carried out in cooperation with UXB
International, an American clearance company. In December 1999, PeaceTrees
Vietnam received a $1.5 million grant from the Freeman Foundation over a
three-year period to clear an area of thirteen hectares around the education
center.[40]
The British NGO Mines Advisory Group (MAG) signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with Quang Tri Province in December 1998 and has been operational
since January 1999, with funding of $1million provided by the Danish Government
(Danida). These funds covered a period of January 1999 - July 2000. MAG, in
cooperation with the Provincial Peoples' Committee, is preparing a 3 year
proposal for expansion of an estimated $4 million. There has been confirmed
funding of $1.5 million from the Freeman
Foundation.[41] MAG’s
program includes demining as well as environmental rehabilitation activities.
A small German NGO, Potsdam Kommunikation e.V., received its first funding of
$77,000 in 1999 for surveying and UXO removal in Thua Thien-Hue province. As
with SODI, the project operates in partnership with GERBERA. In 2000, the German
Foreign Ministry granted an additional DM 450,000 ($225,000) to the
project.[42]
The Humanitarian Demining Information Center at James Madison University
(Harrisonburg, VA, U.S.) operated a Mines Awareness Program (JMU-MAP) for
children in Quang Tri from February 1999 through March 2000. JMU-MAP originally
worked in partnership with PeaceTrees, then continued to operate separately,
with a U.S. government-funded budget of $485,000 granted in May
1999.[43] At present, extension
of the program has not been funded.
U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen offered to provide clearance
equipment to Vietnam during his March 2000 visit, a suggestion that seems to
have been well received by
Hanoi.[44] However, the details
of the arrangement have yet to be finalized. The U.S. State Department’s
follow-up offer of approximately $750,000 in deep-detection equipment and
training still requires the approval of Vietnamese
authorities.[45] The State
Department’s Humanitarian Demining Program has expressed interest in
working in Vietnam on several occasions. A spring 1999 assessment mission to
discuss possible types of assistance was
inconclusive.[46]
Mine/UXO Clearance
The People’s Army of Vietnam conducts almost
all organized mine and UXO clearance. From 1975-1985, clearance focused on
heavily populated areas and agricultural land. A senior Quang Tri official says,
“We paid a lot of attention to bom-min in the one and a half years
or so right after reunification.... There were forty clearance teams and 2000
participants.”[47]
Postwar clearance was, however, fairly superficial, dealing only with explosive
material at a depth of less than one foot (30
cm).[48] Clearance campaigns
started up again from 1991 to 1998, according to government sources. Some 15-20%
of explosives left by the war have been cleared, accounting for 7-8% of the
country’s total land
area.[49]
Recent military clearance has been undertaken along the Chinese border and to
make way for new infrastructure projects as necessary. In the northeastern
border province of Lang Son, one army battalion reports clearance of 400
hectares of minefields since 1991, preparing for the resettlement of over 2,000
people.[50]
The rapid expansion of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City has led to new construction
in previously affected areas. Army sapper units are contracted on a per-job
basis to remove the explosives. On occasion, foreign investors and NGOs have
also paid the army to clear land. During the 1999 construction of a motorcycle
factory in Hai Duong, the Ford Motor Corporation reportedly paid $60,000 for
clearance of six hectares—a much cheaper rate than afforded by
international demining
organizations.[51] Oxfam Hong
Kong paid local militia $14,000 to clear a four-hectare reservoir site during an
environmental rehabilitation project in Quang Tri in 1998-9. The operation was
completely manual, with safety procedures minimal to
nonexistent.[52]
At present, civilians who discover a mine or bomb are expected to inform the
local military, who then come to remove or clear the site. However, the response
time is often unacceptably slow. Newspapers have reported numerous accounts of
residents of various provinces finding explosives, waiting as long as seven
months for a clearance team, then attempting to dispose of the materials
themselves.[53]
Alternatively, residents call on the numerous scrap collectors and
do-it-yourself deminers in the central provinces. Hoang Anh Quyet of Quang
Tri’s Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs claims there
have been up to 4,000 people in his province alone engaging in their own
clearance activities since the
1980s.[54] Civilian
“wildcat deminers” form a virtual second army in the most affected
areas.
The clearance being undertaken in Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue is mostly
around former US/South Vietnamese military sites. MAG has been working in Gio
Linh District, Quang-Tri Province since January 1999. 40 local civilian deminers
have been trained, beginning clearance operations in July 1999. MAG's
operations are closely linked in support of the provincial development plan; MAG
works closely with the Provincial People's Committee, the local authority in
charge of administration and development. MAG cooperates with a number of other
NGOs which are working on and with the land cleared by MAG: Plan International
– a housing construction program; Peace Trees Vietnam- mine awareness and
replanting; and Oxfam Hong Kong- agricultural development. To date, MAG has
cleared over 60 housing and garden plots handing them back to the families that
own the land. This equates to approximately 40 hectares of safe land.
Eighty-seven mines and 2,714 items of UXO have been
destroyed.[55]
GERBERA, under contracts with SODI and Potsdam Kommunikation, works in Cam Lo
district and at Ai Tu in Trieu Phong district. It has cleared seventy-seven
hectares of land and plans to clear forty-eight hectares in 2000. UXB, under
contracts for PeaceTrees, is clearing around the former U.S. Marine logistics
base in Dong Ha. It has cleared ten hectares of land and plans to clear thirteen
hectares in 2000.[56]
In each case, the provincial People’s Committee suggested the site, or
offered several sites out of which one was clearly the most in need of
clearance. Recently, provincial officials have taken representatives of each of
the international groups to proposed new sites, including Vinh Linh district in
the former DMZ and around Khe
Sanh.[57] The provincial
government has submitted proposals to several other international NGOs for
additional demining work, but no agreements have yet been
reached.[58]
Both MAG and UXB have proposed establishment of mobile detection (EOD) and
clearance teams in Quang Tri. The concept has also received the endorsement of
provincial authorities. The teams would respond to UXO incidents and suspected
minefields anywhere in the province, reported through the provincial Mines
Awareness Program.[59]
Coordination of Mine/UXO Action
There is no body responsible for coordinating mine
action operations, although there is substantial interest in forming one. The
central government has appointed VUFO to form a master
plan,[60] but there is no
progress reported as yet. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official says he would
welcome NGO support for the establishment of a Mine Action
Center.[61] Any decision to set
up a “VMAC” will have to come directly from the Prime
Minister.[62] In a sign of
significant movement on the issue, PACCOM agreed in March to Oxfam Hong
Kong’s proposal for a study tour to mine action centers in Cambodia, Laos
and Thailand. Nine representatives of PACCOM, the Communist Party of Vietnam,
the Committee on NGO Affairs, and the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense and
Public Security took part in the two-week trip. Officials are particularly
interested in raising and sharing funds, rehabilitation and resettlement
activities, and improving relations among international donors and local
partners.[63]
Plans to hold a high-level meeting on landmines and UXO have been underway
for at least three years, but have not yet been approved by the central
government. According to Nguyen Van Kien of PACCOM, “This seminar will
provide an opportunity for discussion among Vietnamese agencies and NGOs to find
suitable partners for working in the areas of landmines and
UXO.”[64]
International mine action organizations in Quang Tri hope that their project
steering committees, which include local, provincial and army officials, would
continue to operate after the conclusion of existing projects, possibly
combining into a provincial mine action committee. The province’s proposed
Mines Awareness Program contains a structure that officials hope can become a
nationwide model: “If we work well, the [central] government will allow
others to develop regional centers, not just in our
province.”[65]
Vietnam’s bureaucratic system, however, restricts the province’s
freedom to move ahead of central government policy.
Planning of Mine/UXO Action
A national mine and UXO clearance plan, similarly, is currently under
discussion in the Vietnamese government. Vu Xuan Hong of VUFO claims that
“Vietnam has a plan for demining south of the 17th
Parallel,”[66] that is in
the former South. It is unclear what implications this has for the north of the
country. The difficulty of coordinating activities across many ministries and
in some cases competing bureaucracies appears to be the major obstacle to faster
action.
Quang Tri province is reportedly in the process of developing its own
clearance plan.[67] A de facto
plan appears to exist already, as witnessed by the way that the province has
distributed international clearance projects around the province. The memorandum
of understanding signed between the Quang Tri People’s Committee, James
Madison University, and PeaceTrees contains the goal of “developing a Mine
Action Master Plan to determine priorities of Landmine/UXO assessment and
clearance activity for the province and to focus Mine Awareness Education as a
primary goal....”[68]
Other provinces would like to follow suit, but are waiting for central
government direction and observing the progress in Quang
Tri.[69]
Reconstruction & Development of Cleared Areas
According to the Land Law, agricultural land allocation in rural Vietnam is
carried out by the commune or village on the basis of family size and need.
Land that is cleared by the military is turned over to local authorities, who
then decide how best to use it. Hong Xuan Khang, chair of one Quang Tri commune,
says that his community has 170 hectares of arable land, or 15% of the district
total, that are currently unusable because of mines and
UXO.[70] If local farmers can
enjoy full use of the land, a significant obstacle to poverty would be
overcome.[71]
In existing clearance programs in Quang Tri, the province and districts have
identified intended beneficiaries for resettlement once clearance is complete.
SODI has resettled fifty-four families since 1998 on a cleared military base
site in Cam Lo, many of them the children or relatives of families who lived
there prior to the war.[72] An
additional hundred families whose villages were destroyed by a landslide will be
resettled in 2000 on SODI’s Ai Tu
site.[73]
MAG works in coordination with district authorities, Plan International and
Oxfam Hong Kong on post-clearance
development.[74] Of a planned
155 hectares to be cleared, one hundred will be used by the province as
agricultural resettlement sites. During the approval process for MAG’s
project, Oxfam Hong Kong signed a memorandum of understanding to assist in
development in cleared areas, a provision that was necessary for the project to
begin.[75] The Vietnamese
government places a high priority on redevelopment and has supported and
fostered partnerships among clearance agencies and development NGOs.
Mine/UXO Awareness Education
Awareness programs are encouraged by Vietnamese
authorities and have been carried out mostly on the local or provincial levels.
Mass organizations such as the Women’s Union or Committee for the Care and
Protection of Children (CPCC) are particularly appropriate to carry out mine and
UXO education, as they have levels of membership reaching into every commune and
village.[76] Radio and
television stations have produced reports on the danger and effects of
explosives: for example, a half-hour prime time television documentary,
“Mines and UXO in the Eyes of Children,” aired on Quang Tri
provincial television for two nights in January 2000. The documentary Vi
cuoc song binh yen (“For a Peaceful Life,” English version
released as Deadly Debris), a valuable source of data and interview
footage in its own right, was shown on national television in 1999.
Government officials and NGO staff who have attended mine conferences in
Cambodia, Indonesia, Mozambique and elsewhere return with resources that are
widely distributed and copied. In one case, JMU’s Mine Awareness Program
hired a local artist to adapt Cambodian materials to look more Vietnamese. In
cooperation with the Quang Tri House for Children, JMU-MAP held a poster
competition on “Keeping families safe from mines and UXO” in August
1999, with impressive results that have been distributed on calendars and
notebooks. UNICEF’s Mine Awareness Guidelines are understood and widely
applied by the provincial People’s Committee, especially the importance of
making materials appropriate to the local cultural
context.[77] The People’s
Committee is working on a standardized curriculum for mine and UXO education,
with contributions from international
organizations.[78]
The Danaan Perry Landmine Education Center in Quang Tri is the first center
of its kind in the country and contains displays and pictures relating to mine
awareness. The center has been used as a base for PeaceTrees’s
tree-planting projects, using a mixture of American and Vietnamese volunteers.
However, it has up to now been used only sporadically for education programs.
JMU-MAP has conducted training courses for forty Women’s Union and
Committee for the Care and Protection of Children members, who will return and
teach mine awareness in their home villages. A survey carried out in fall 1999
by JMU-MAP and the provincial Women’s Union assessed mine and UXO
awareness, casualties and socio-economic impact. Although the survey results are
said to be complete, the province has not yet released them
publicly.[79]
Quang Tri’s proposed provincial Mines Awareness Program would continue
many of the activities of the James Madison project, as well as integrating
detection, clearance, and rehabilitation activities into a cohesive structure.
Target goals are reducing accidents through outreach and education; evaluating
effects of mines and UXO on people’s livelihoods, especially women and
children; supporting victims; and updating information and statistics. Mobile
teams, including education, clearance and medical components, would travel to
schools and communities to carry out training
programs.[80] If successful,
this would be the first coordinated program of its kind in Vietnam.
Landmine/UXO Casualties
In the first nationwide survey on mine and UXO
casualties since the end of the war, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and
Social Affairs (MOLISA) reported in September 1999 that 38,248 people have been
killed and 64,064 injured through May 1998 (out of a total population of 78
million).[81] The U.S. State
Department estimates 180 casualties per
month.[82] Officials agree that
the actual numbers may be much higher than reported as many accidents,
especially when death is immediate, are not counted. According to one member of
the Quang Tri People’s Committee, “The number of victims is higher
still in reality because the provincial authorities do not have enough money to
spend on detailed
investigation.”[83]
More detailed surveys have been carried out in Quang Tri province, although
the data is often contradictory. Provincial authorities report a total of 5,035
deaths and 6,824 injuries due to mines and UXO dating from the end of the
war.[84] Hong Xuan Khang, a
commune chairperson in Gio Linh district, says that out of 6,300 commune
residents, 271 have died and 544 been wounded by mines and UXO since
1975[85]--a 13% casualty rate.
In one single village, where MAG is currently preparing resettlement sites,
there have been 87 reported mine accidents since the end of the
war.[86] Neighboring Cam Lo
district, site of several large former U.S. bases, claims 54 deaths and 262
injuries out of a population of 41,335
(0.8%).[87]
According to one limited survey of amputees, mine-caused injuries peaked
during 1975-77, remained stable through the 1980s, and were reduced to half in
the 1990s.[88] Data collected by
the Quang Tri Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shows
consistently declining casualty figures since 1991. The department’s
director concludes that fewer mines and UXO are being found on the ground
surface, and thus assistance to existing victims should be a higher priority for
the province than further
clearance.[89]
There is not adequate data to determine whether there has, in fact, been any
reduction in casualties. Mine incidents continue to be reported with frequency
in the Vietnamese press: one article in December 1999 cited figures of 63
accidents in the preceding three months, killing 78 and injuring 138. Examples
came from at least twelve provinces in all areas of the
country.[90] A survey of five
national and provincial newspapers over a one-month period from March to April
2000 found eleven mine and UXO deaths reported in southern Vietnam (Mekong Delta
and Central Highlands), including eight children and three scrap collectors.
Quang Tri officials and Handicap International estimate that more than half
of casualties occur to scrap dealers searching for
explosives.[91] Most injuries
are classified as accidental or work-related. Adult men, most in their twenties
or thirties, make up 85% of amputees.
Of 281 amputees receiving prostheses at the Quang Tri provincial hospital
from 1994 to 1997, 78% had war-related injuries, 40% of which occurred since
1975. Antipersonnel mines, rather than UXO, accounted for the majority of
injuries, but larger shells and bombs are of course more likely to kill
their victims rather than maim
them.[92]
Little is known regarding the casualty rate among Vietnamese military
deminers. Given the near-universal lack of international standard safety
equipment, deaths and injuries are likely relatively high. For instance, at
least two or three, and probably more, workers were killed in 1999 during
construction of the road from Quang Tri to the Laotian
border.[93] Thirty-seven
soldiers were reported killed during demining along Vietnam’s northern
border from 1991-98.[94]
Ministry of Health officials variously estimate the total number of people
with disabilities in Vietnam between 3.5 and 5 million, or 4-7% of the
population, with approximately 30% of the total due to war-related injuries. 70%
of people with disabilities are in need of rehabilitative services, and 80% have
below average living
standards.[95] No national-level
baseline survey has yet been conducted. The International Committee of the Red
Cross estimates the total number of amputees in Vietnam at 60,000 or 1 per
1,200. ICRC’s rehabilitation program in Ho Chi Minh City, the first in
Vietnam, fitted 15,000 people with prostheses from
1989-99.[96]
Survivor Assistance
Vietnam’s medical system is relatively
effective for a poor developing country, with 90% of people having access to
health care.[97] Government-run
health stations exist down to the commune and village level, but outreach beyond
commune centers is often a problem. In the past health care was provided
virtually free of charge, but under a market economy patients are expected to
cover the costs of an increasing amount of treatment. The quality of care
available in major cities has improved substantially for those who can afford
it, while market reforms have left many areas of the countryside behind.
Rehabilitation and reintegration programs are typically conducted at provincial
hospitals and in cities. In addition to seventeen government-run rehabilitation
centers and fifty-four provincial hospitals, there are eighty
“sanatoriums” throughout the country that provide
physiotherapy.[98]
The International Committee of the Red Cross opened a rehabilitation center
in Ho Chi Minh City in 1989 with the cooperation of the Ministry of Labor,
Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA). During the 1990s, prosthetic technology
was introduced to other provincial capitals around the country. Since 1995, the
ICRC presence has increasingly been taken over by non-governmental
organizations, many following the Red Cross model, and expanded
nationwide.[99]
Nineteen international organizations currently conduct disability-related
programs in Vietnam; of these, fifteen assist people with physical
disabilities.[100] In 1998,
state-run and non-governmental workshops combined to produce nearly 23,000
orthopaedic devices, including 13,500 prosthetic limbs. Despite these varied
efforts, demand for limbs by amputees outstrips supply by more than two to
one.[101]
Total disability project funding over the period 1997-2001 is $17.3 million,
with most funding coming from USAID and the European
Union.[102] If mine victims
make up an estimated 15% of the total disabled population in Vietnam, then $2.6
million of this funding can also be said to be
mine-related.[103]
In addition to these efforts, several NGOs and international donors are
engaged in community development work in mine-affected areas. Oxfam Hong Kong
first became interested in landmines through working in two districts in Quang
Tri in the early 1990s where mines and UXO were a great obstacle to development;
other NGOs had similar
experiences.[104] Oxfam is now
coordinating with MAG’s demining project on community development
activities.
Disability Policy and Practice
Vietnam’s 1992 Constitution provides that “[t]he State should
develop and consistently manage health-care-for-people activities, mobilizing
and organizing social forces—in the direction of
prevention.”[105]
National ordinance 06-L/CTN on Disabled Persons, adopted in July 1998, gives
persons with disabilities the right to an education, adequate health care and
job opportunities. People who became disabled during the war are given
preferential treatment, as are identified victims of dioxin poisoning (Agent
Orange).[106] In February 2000,
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai announced an allowance of 48,000-84,000 dong
($3.50-6) per month would be paid to disabled children of war veterans affected
by toxic chemicals.[107]
Postwar mine victims do not yet receive this assistance, nor do veterans of the
South Vietnamese army (ARVN) or their children.
There is presently no national coordination body for disability issues.
MOLISA is the lead agency dealing with mine victims; the Ministry of Education
and Training and Ministry of Health are also involved, as are mass organizations
such as the Committee for the Care and Protection of Children, the Fatherland
Front, Veterans’ Association, and Vietnam Women’s Union. Among
NGOs, a Disability Forum meets regularly at the VUFO-NGO Resource Center in
Hanoi.
[1] Don Tuan Phong of the People’s
Aid Coordinating Committee (PACCOM), speaking at the Forum on Cambodia, Laos and
Vietnam in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 26-29 January
1999. [2] “Queen Noor sees war
legacy first hand,” Viet Nam News, 18 October
1999. [3] Interview with Chuck Searcy,
VVAF, Hanoi, 3 January 2000. [4]
Interviews with members of a Vietnamese government study tour to mine action
centers in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, 14 April
2000. [5] Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MOFA), “Van de Min sat thuong” (The Question of Antipersonnel
Mines), internal document provided to Landmine Monitor-Vietnam, 2 March
2000. [6]
Ibid. [7] Ibid.; Oxfam Hong Kong
interviews with members of the government mine action study tour group, 21 April
2000. [8] Landmine Working Group, Joint
Goals Statement, March 1998. Active members of the group include Catholic Relief
Services, Handicap International, Oxfam Hong Kong, PeaceTrees Vietnam, Vietnam
Assistance for the Handicapped, and
VVAF. [9] Interview with Bui Minh Tam,
Hanoi, 15 March 2000. [10] Stephen D.
Biddle, “Landmines in Asia,” paper presented at the Phnom Penh
Landmines Conference, 1995. [11] See
Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp. 513-514. See also, Human Rights Watch,
Landmines: A Deadly Legacy (Human Rights Watch: New York, 1993), p. 54,
102. [12] MOFA, “Van de Min sat
thuong.” [13] Landmines: A Deadly
Legacy, pp. 103-4; Paul Davies, War of the Mines (Pluto Press, 1994), pp. 13-19,
44. [14] Viet Nam News, 7 January
2000. [15] Communication from Landmine
Monitor-Burma researcher, 15 February
2000. [16] Interview with Roger Hess,
UXB International, 30 March 2000. [17]
Interview with Bui Minh Tam, 15 March 2000; Oxfam Hong Kong interview, 20 April
2000. [18] MOFA, “Van de Min sat
thuong.” [19] Le Huy Hoang, Bui
Minh Tam and Le Van Trung, “Vietnam: Demining Activities and
Challenges,” paper presented at the International Forum on Demining and
Victim Assistance, Phnom Penh, 26-28 October 1998. (Unclear whether this refers
to total tonnage or total numbers.) [20]
U.S. State Department, Hidden Killers, September 1998, p. A-3, citing UN
database. [21] Communication from Roger
Hess, UXB International, 7 March 2000; similar information presented in Vi Cuoc
song Binh yen (“For a Peaceful Life”; English version released as
Deadly Debris), a documentary film produced by Nguyen Luong Duc and Vu Le My,
Hanoi, 1999. [22] Hoang, Tam and Trung,
“Vietnam: Demining Activities and
Challenges.” [23] Cited in Vi Cuoc
song Binh yen; identical data presented in “Vietnam: Demining Activities
and Challenges.” [24] Quang Tri
military authorities estimate over 225 million total mines and UXO remaining in
the province, while the UN database estimates more than 58,000 mines and UXO.
Quang Tri People’s Committee, “General Introduction About Quang Tri
Province,” March 2000. The editor of the document concedes that “it
is not sure the figures in the statistics are accurate,” but this is the
most recent data. [25] Interviews with
U.S. veterans, tour guides and provincial officials, Quang Tri, 12-13 January
2000. [26] Interviews with Bui Minh Tam,
Director, Ministry of Defense Mine Technology Center, Hanoi, 15 March 2000, and
Chuck Searcy, VVAF, 3 January 2000. [27]
Thanh Nien (Youth) daily newspaper, 27 March 2000, p.5; Huw Watkin, “Help
Needed to Clear Bombed Road Route,” South China Morning Post, 24 March
2000; “Unexploded Bombs Found in Xuan Son Ferry Area,” Lao Dong
(Labor) daily newspaper, 22 March 2000,
p.1. [28] Quang Tri People’s
Committee, Proposal for a Mines Awareness Program, March 2000; UXB
International, Mobile Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team
Proposal. [29] Interview with Bui Minh
Tam, 15 March 2000. [30] Cited in Vi
Cuoc song Binh yen; Hoang, Tam and Trung, “Vietnam: Demining Activities
and Challenges.” [31] Hoang, Tam
and Trung, “Vietnam: Demining Activities and
Challenges.” [32] Interview with
Bui Minh Tam, 15 March 2000; “Vietnam: Demining Activities and
Challenges.” [33] Oxfam Hong Kong
telephone interview with Vu Xuan Hong (Vietnam Union of Friendship
Organizations), Hanoi, 27 April
1999. [34] Interview with Bui Minh Tam,
15 March 2000. [35] PACCOM, “Bao
cao mot so Van de lien quan den Bom min va Vat lieu chua no” (Report on
Some Questions Concerning Landmines and Unexploded Materials), October
1999. [36] Oxfam Hong Kong telephone
interview, 27 April 1999. [37] PACCOM,
“Bao cao mot so Van
de...” [38] Oxfam Hong Kong,
Landmines Advocacy Strategy 1999. [39]
Interviews with provincial and district-level officials, Quang Tri, 12-14
January 2000; Viet Nam News, 2 February
1999. [40] Figures provided to Landmine
Monitor by Imbert Matthee (PeaceTrees Managing Director), 7 March
2000. [41] Information provided by Nick
Proudman, MAG Program Manager, Quang Tri, 12 January 2000 and Tim Carstairs, MAG
Communications Director, 28 July
2000. [42] Communication to Landmine
Monitor from Lutz Vogt (Potsdam Kommunikation chairman), 17 March
2000. [43] Calvin Trice, “Land
Mine Center Receives Grant,” Richmond Times Dispatch, 21 June
1999. [44] Paul Richter, “Cohen
Begins Vietnam Visit, Pushes for Relations Between Militaries,” Los
Angeles Times, 14 March 2000; “US should do more to help overcome war
legacy,” Viet Nam News, 14 March 2000,
p.1. [45] Jan Scruggs (Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Foundation) and Bui The Giang (Communist Party External Relations
Department), speaking at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Corporate Council
delegation seminar, Hanoi, 25 April
2000. [46] Interview with Chuck Searcy,
VVAF, 3 January 2000. [47] Interview
with Hoang Anh Quyet, Director, Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social
Affairs, Quang Tri, 31 March 2000. [48]
Ministry of Defense officials, quoted in Vi Cuoc song Binh
yen. [49] Hoang, Tam and Trung,
“Vietnam: Demining Activities and
Challenges.” [50] Quan Doi Nhan
Dan (People’s Army) daily newspaper, 28 March 2000, p.
2. [51] Interview with Chuck Searcy,
VVAF, 3 January 2000. [52] Interview
with Tran Thanh Binh (Oxfam Hong Kong), 19 April
2000. [53] For example, Thanh Nien, 20
March 2000, p. 15; Phu Yen newspaper, 21 March 2000, p. 4; Tien Phong (Pioneer),
8 April 2000, p. 10. [54] Interview with
Hoang Anh Quyet, Quang Tri, 31 March
2000. [55] Interviews with MAG staff,
January-February 2000; MAG Quarterly Progress Report, 30 September 1999, and
email from Tim Carstairs, MAG Communications Director, 28 July
2000. [56] Interviews with GERBERA and
UXB staff, January-February 2000. [57]
Interviews with MAG, GERBERA and UXB staff, January-February
2000. [58] Quang Tri People’s
Committee, Proposals for Demining in Cam Lo and Gio Linh Districts,
1997-99. [59] MAG Vietnam,
“Community Level Mine Action” (discussion paper), March 2000; UXB
International, Mobile EOD Team proposal; Quang Tri People’s Committee,
Proposal for a Mines Awareness
Program. [60] Oxfam Hong Kong telephone
interview with Vu Xuan Hong (VUFO), 27 April
1999. [61] Oxfam Hong Kong telephone
interview with Le Huy Hoang, 22 June
1999. [62] Interview with Bui Minh Tam,
15 March 2000. [63] PACCOM,
“Issues of Interest to the Vietnamese Delegation on Studytour to UXO
Centers in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia” (discussion paper), 12 April 2000;
interviews with study tour participants, 14 April
2000. [64] Working Notes from the
Landmines, UXO and Agent Orange Sectoral Group, Forum on Cambodia, Laos and
Vietnam, Phnom Penh, 26-29 January
1999. [65] Interview with Nguyen Duc
Quang, Quang Tri External Relations Department, 22 February
2000. [66] Oxfam Hong Kong interview, 27
April 1999. [67] Interviews with Hoang
Dang Mai, Quang Tri Province External Relations Department, and other current
and former provincial officials, 12-17 January
2000. [68] “Memorandum of
Understanding between Foreign Relations Department, Provincial People’s
Committee of Quang Tri, and James Madison University & Peace Trees Vietnam
for a Landmine Awareness Project,” February
1999. [69] Interviews with international
NGOs and Quang Tri officials, January-February
2000. [70] Cited in Vi Cuoc song Binh
yen. [71] Monan, Landmines and
Underdevelopment, gives many case studies and anecdotal evidence to support this
point. [72] Interview with Wolfram
Schwope (GERBERA), 23 February
2000. [73] Nong nghiep Viet Nam
(Vietnamese Agriculture) magazine, 1 March 2000, p.
2. [74] Interview with Nick Proudman,
MAG, 23 February 2000. [75] Interview
with Tran Thanh Binh, Oxfam Hong Kong, 21 February
2000. [76] Interviews with Mark Pirie,
JMU-MAP, 14 January and 23 February
2000. [77]
Ibid. [78] Interview with Nguyen Duc
Quang, Quang Tri External Relations Department, 22 February
2000. [79] Interview with Mark Pirie,
JMU-MAP, 14 January 2000. [80] Quang Tri
People’s Committee, Proposal for a Mines Awareness Program, March
2000. [81] “Leftover Ordnance In
Vietnam Deadly,” San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 September 1999;
“Explosive legacy of war kills more than 38,000,” South China
Morning Post, 24 December 1999 [82] U.S.
State Department, Hidden Killers,
1998. [83] Cited in Jim Monan, The
Impact of Landmines on Children. [84]
Quang Tri Statistical Office data collected by MAG,
1999. [85] Cited in Vi Cuoc song Binh
yen. [86] Gio Linh People’s
Committee Annual Report, 1999. [87]
Quang Tri People’s Committee, Proposal for Demining in Cam Lo District,
1997. [88] Handicap International,
prosthetic survey from the Dong Ha (Quang Tri) clinic, November 1997. PACCOM
cites statistics of 22,000 casualties in 1976 and 1977
alone. [89] Quang Tri People’s
Committee, “General Introduction about Quang Tri”; Landmine Monitor
interview with Hoang Anh Quyet (DOLISA), 31 March
2000. [90] Pham Khuong, “Nhung noi
dau dai dang” (Prolonged Suffering), Cong An Nhan Dan (People’s
Police) daily newspaper, 20 December
1999. [91] Handicap International,
Analysis of November 1997 Prosthetic Survey; interview with Hoang Anh Quyet, 31
March 2000. [92]
Ibid. [93] Huw Watkin, “Help
Needed to Clear Bombed Road Route,” South China Morning Post, 24 March
2000; telephone interview with Chuck Searcy, Hanoi, 21 April
2000. [94] Associated Press, “25
Years Later, Vietnam’s Deadly Legacy of War,” Baltimore Sun, 27
April 2000. [95] Le Ngoc Trung, Nguyen
Thi Hoai Thu and Dr. Nguyen Xuan Nghien, speaking at the Workshop on
Rehabilitation and Reintegration of People with Mobility Impairments and Other
Disabilities, Hanoi, 23-25 March
1998. [96] International Committee of
the Red Cross, “Briefing Paper on Cooperation Between MOLISA and ICRC on
[the] Orthopaedic Programme In Vietnam,” October 1999; ICRC Mines
Overview, 1996. [97] UNDP, Human
Development Report 1998. [98] Thomas T.
Kane, Disability in Vietnam in the 1990s: A Meta-Analysis of the Data, U.S.
Agency for International Development, October 1999, pp.
47-49. [99] ICRC Briefing Paper, October
1999. [100] Those organizations are:
AIFO (Italy); Catholic Relief Services (U.S.); DED (Germany); Handicap
International (Belgium); Health Volunteers Overseas (U.S.); MCNV (Netherlands);
POWER (UK); Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (U.S.); Rädda Barnen (Sweden);
Save the Children Fund (UK); VIETCOT (Germany); Vietnam Assistance for the
Handicapped (U.S.); Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (U.S.); World Concern
(U.S.); World Vision (U.S.). [101] Kane,
Disability in Vietnam, p. 51. [102]
Health Volunteers Overseas, Disabilities Programs—Vietnam
1999. [103] A 1994-95 Disability Survey
by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) found 19.1%
of disabilities to be war-related; in Handicap International’s 1997 survey
of post-1975 amputees, 72% were caused by
mines. [104] Monan, Landmines and
Underdevelopment. [105] Constitution of
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Article
39. [106] “Ordinance on
preferential treatment of revolutionary activists, fallen heroes...” etc.;
Disability ordinance, Articles 2-3. Official Gazette of the National Assembly,
No. 28, 10 October 1998. [107]
“Fund for Agent Orange victims mobilises VND10 billion,” Viet Nam
News, 29 February 2000; “’Toxin’ Children get government
help,” Viet Nam News, 1 March 2000.
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