Cleaning up cluster bombs for residents to build new homes, live in safety

Le Dong stands by his peanut garden where cluster bombs were safely removed by RENEW team members.

Lê Đông was gesturing toward the edge of his village. “This area was littered with so many cluster bombs after 1975,” he said, “that when people came back after the war a lot of casualties occurred while they were farming.” Lê Đông, a 41-year-old resident of Cam Hiếu Commune, Cam Lộ District, recalled that for some years after the war “a village medic had to accompany people at all times when they were preparing the land for farming.” Đông gazed across land which is now being cleared of bombs and mines by a RENEW clearance team.

Now deputy chief of Tân Trúc Village, Lê Đông is one of the local contact points for Project RENEW’s clearance team, who are helping to help clean up a 20,000-square-meter area around the village.

“We appreciate the work being carried out by the clearance team,” Lê Đông said, “to rid our land of unexploded bombies left from the war. They are still deadly if disturbed. Just two weeks ago, team members safely removed two bombs away from this land where my family is growing peanuts.” Đông pointed to tiny green peanut plants rising from the soil adjacent to his house.

The team started working in mid-January following a request from the authorities of Cam Lộ District to clear a site for a communal house and for approximately 39 families to build new homes after clearance work is finished in late March.
The RENEW team’s technical survey indicated that the area was heavily contaminated with cluster bombs. Local reports revealed that nine people had been killed or injured by cluster bomb accidents in the past, and 17 unexploded cluster munitions were found prior to actual clearance as the team was conducting the survey.

“About 70 percent of the work has been accomplished,” said team leader Mai Văn Việt. “We’re glad to see a new peanut crop growing on the land the team just cleaned up. More importantly,” he added, “new families will have safe land to build their houses. Most of them still live with their parents so they need new land to expand into their own homes.” Technical advisor Chris Ramsden noted, "many of the cluster bombs we found are not only underground but among tree stumps or bamboo bushes." Chris is part of Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), which has been an important partner organization providing financial and technical support to Project RENEW since 2007.

Team members search for UXO on what used to be a thick stand of bamboo, cut away by an excavator provided by the U.S. Department of Defense.

“It is likely that residents felt they had no choice but to remove the bombs there so they could continue their farming,” Chris said.

“Our team just received another request from the village,” Chris added, “asking that we extend our clearance to cover some additional land that local people suspect to be contaminated. And of course we’ll continue our work to make sure their daily activities are no longer threatened by this deadly legacy of the war.”

Releasing safe land for community development is one of the tasks RENEW teams carry out on a daily basis. The work reflects the on-going commitment of Project RENEW staff and international partners like NPA to clean up the deadly legacy left behind when the fighting stopped almost four decades ago.

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