Le The Tam [above] is Team Leader of 'MAT 3', one of MAG's multi-skilled Mine Action Teams clearing remnants of conflict in Vietnam. Here he talks of meeting a survivor of the Vietnam-American War...
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A few months ago we conducted clearance tasks in a village in Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province. During the war, a military depot was located in the village, making it a target for heavy bombing. I had a chance to talk to a resident of the village, 76-year-old Mr Nguyen Huu Ngan.
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For Ngan, war is in the past, but he cannot forget it. During the war, he usually had to work away from home, leaving his wife alone with their eight children.
It is not an exaggeration to say that they never experienced any joy during this period of their life. Repeated air raids destroyed their house time after time.
Ngan told me that even though he was often away, he still witnessed the bombing of his village on several occasions. In one raid, his sister-in-law and his nephew were killed. In another, nine people were killed right in front of him, including five children, by an air bombardment.
The problemMillions of tonnes of ordnance were dropped on Vietnam between 1964 and 1973. It is estimated that up to one third of this ordnance did not detonate. This unexploded ordnance (UXO) still contaminates the ground, affecting as much as 20 per cent of the total area of Vietnam. There are also landmines, most of which were laid during conflicts with neighbouring countries during the 1970s. UXO and landmines can explode if disturbed, causing injury and death. They also keep people in poverty, by preventing them from carrying out everyday activities such as farming fields, building houses, digging fish ponds or collecting food in the forest. Some of the poorest areas of Vietnam are those that are the most heavily contaminated with UXO. Find out moreYour donation is used to reach communities most in need and enable us to respond quickly to emergency situations. There are many ways to help MAG – please Donate or Get Involved in whatever way you can.
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This is just a story of an ordinary person, but it reflects the past life of a community. Ngan’s life is not exceptional. Though wars are now just the past, the stories from those times can still make us cry.
Although we were in the village for a very short time we still experienced the villagers’ heart-touching hospitality. How can I forget the simple yet delicious meals they invited me to join? I very much enjoyed the atmosphere in those small houses, with no valuable possessions but plenty of joy and laughter.
How lucky I am to be born long after the war. How beautiful life is when we do not have to worry that one day a big bomb will drop down on the roof of our house.
But life is not beautiful, even during peacetime, for people who still worry that one day an unexploded bomb will detonate when they are working on their land.
That is why I believe in the significance of my job with MAG. I must go to places where I’ve never been to before, where people live in danger and the people need us to clear land.
I am so proud to work for a mine action organisation. I believe that every single item of UXO [unexploded ordnance] removed is a life saved. That’s my greatest happiness. Thinking that, I enjoy every single working day.
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With funding from the US Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, MAG has cleared 17,614 square metres of land in Bo Trach district, removing nearly 13,100 items of UXO in the process. More than 36,000 households benefited from this work. In Mr Ngan’s village (Village 7, Hoan Trach commune), an average of one item of UXO was found for every 64 square metres of land.
[Photo: MAG Vietnam]
9 April 2010
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