GOING THROUGH EARLY PAIN

: Warrior on the land of death

Not only do they face death every day, but the demining forces also witness tragic accidents that cause them to lose food and sleep.

Cu Nam commune, Bo Trach district is one of the two localities identified with the highest concentration of landmine / UXO pollution in Quang Binh province. Here, the British NGO Mines Advisory Group (MAG) has sent four teams to assist in overcoming the consequences of the war.

Mechanical, brave

As the sun rose, MAG team started to work on a 2-hectare hill in Tan Nam village, Cu Nam commune. One group used a bomb detector and set up landmarks to mark the detection position; The other group monitors and handles the scene if underground mines and ERW are suspected.

Ms. Chau Thi Dieu, a rare female member of the team, said that because of “cleaning” the land up to a few meters deep, the MAG brothers had to work meticulously, cautiously and liberate all the places they went. by. “If you do not have a job, you will encounter a cluster bomb, you just need to accidentally touch it, impact it to explode, die like a play. We have to face with bombs and ammunition every day. I am scared but now I am familiar with it “- Mrs. Dieu said.

MAG technical experts surveyed a 450 kg bomb when it was detected with an intact detonator in Quang Binh Photo: MAG provided

Assigned to be latched in Cu Nam to clean bombs and mines, the MAG group also functions as a fast-response mobile team. Two months ago, during the construction of a road improvement project in Hoan Lao town, Bo Trach district, workers discovered a bomb weighing nearly 300 kg below a depth of nearly 2 m. Immediately, the MAG team arrived at the scene nearly 20 km away to coordinate with the engineering forces in handling the bomb, safely relocating and destroying it.

Returning after a day working on landmine clearance, Dang Mai Chi, technician of MAG Quang Binh, said that many years of handling bombs and mines, he could not forget the tragic deaths of two children ago. 6 years. At that time, while clearing bombs and mines, he received information about a bomb explosion in Phuc Trach commune, Bo Trach district – about 3 km from his workplace. He rushed to the scene, when 2 siblings, Pham Sy Hung (9 years old) and Pham Huu Khuong (5 years old) had passed away.

“The two children went to herding cows and picked up the round ball bomb, which was strange and brought it home. They thought that the iron block should be brought to the porch to play with, accidentally smashing it on the cement floor. The bomb exploded. knocked the two children to pieces, “recalls Chi.

Mr. Le Anh Ngoc, supervisor of MAG Quang Binh’s Field Clearance Team, remembers October 23, 2013, at Le Hoa Secondary School (Tuyen Hoa district), an 8th grade student picked up a cluster bomb and brought it in. school. The bomb exploded during recess, the child died and 2 other students were injured. The explosion shocked many people. It was impossible to believe that the war was far back and there were still so many tragic deaths.

According to a survey by the Vietnam National Mine Action Center, from 1975 to now, Quang Binh has had 5,847 people with landmine / UXO accidents, of which 2,909 died. In the past 10 years alone, there have been 164 landmine / UXO incidents, killing 49 people and injuring 115 people.

Need a lot of funding

Ten years ago, on a foggy day, Major Nguyen Viet Tinh, an employee of the Industry Division, the General Staff Department of the Military Command of Thua Thien – Hue province, and his teammate Pham Huu Lien, assistant Ban Engineers, received an urgent order to the mountainous district of A Luoi to dispose of a bomb.

“It is in the people’s garden in the old airport area in A Dot commune. There are 4 lines but we only see 3 lines of white – blue – red, the other one is faded. This is a chemical bomb, weighing 70. kg, lying open-air “- Major Tinh recalled.

The shell bomb is thin, very explosive with the impact of force. Although it does not cause great damage, if it explodes, it can cause large-scale forest fires, dispersing toxins polluting the water and air environment and affecting the human nervous system. Major Tinh was ordered to dispose of the bomb overnight, but safety was needed.

Road access to the scene, specialized cars cannot be moved, they have to use improved people’s cart to transport the bomb to the demolition site. Major Tinh, his teammate and a military assistant soldier at the A Luoi District Military Command, used a shovel to carefully dig up the soil layer so that the bomb was completely exposed. Three people carried the bomb to the improved truck, which was padded with rice husks and bananas to limit vibrations during transportation. Then a driver, two people behind them pushed it, it took about an hour for them to move the bomb along the 4-kilometer long forest path to the detonation location.

Major Le Van Thanh Ngoc, Head of the Industry Department of the General Staff Department of the Military Command of Thua Thien – Hue province, said: From 2004 to 2008, the province has handled more than 6,207 hectares of contaminated land; for the 2009-2013 period, the clearance and treatment of bombs and mines, cleaning an area of ​​8,717 hectares of land. However, from 2014 up to now, due to the suspension of budget allocation, the handling of bombs and mines has stalled.

“The remaining land area is very polluted, it is necessary to arrange funds soon. When restarting, it is necessary to survey and evaluate the current state of mine and UXO pollution to have more accurate data because data are from five years. 2008 is too old, under the impact of geology, storms for a long time, so there is a fluctuation. Data must be digitized for easy management and implementation when processing “- Major Le Van Thanh Ngoc said. Read newspaper

Workers

from April 12

Revive dead lands

There is no “learning from experience” story.

According to the Military Command of Quang Ngai province, at present, the clearance of bombs, mines and explosives in the province is done regularly with dozens of officers and soldiers participating; by Company 319-5 (under the Ministry of National Defense) and the detecting team of bombs, mines and explosives group 2 (under the Center for UXO handling technology – the High Command of Industry).

Major Vo Tien Thinh – Head of Industry, Military Command of Quang Ngai province – affirmed that handling bombs, mines, explosives left from the war requires steel spirit and especially, there is no “withdrawal. experience “. Once in work, all movements must be 100% accurate.
Major
Polluted