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Vietnam

Last Updated: 01 October 2011

Mine Action

Contamination and Impact

Vietnam is heavily contaminated by explosive remnants of war (ERW), mainly unexploded ordnance (UXO) and mostly dating back to the war with the United States (US) in the 1960s and first half of the 1970s. This includes among the most widespread and extensive contamination from cluster munition remnants in the world. There is, however, no precise figure for the extent of contamination remaining.

Vietnam estimates around 49,500km2 (15% of its total land area) is still contaminated by ERW. This represents a significant reduction from the previous estimate of contamination covering 66,000km2, which reportedly dated from 2002, but ERW still affects all of Vietnam’s 63 provinces and cities.[1]

The Landmine/UXO Impact Survey of the six worst affected central provinces—conducted between 2004 and 2008 by the Technology Center for Bomb and Mine Disposal (BOMICEN) in cooperation with Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF)—reported a total of 3,214 battle and mined areas covering 15,897km2, more than one-third of the six provinces’ total land area and affecting up to 8 million people. Worst affected was Quang Tri province, with 739 bombed and mined areas said to be affecting 3,866km2 or 83% of its total landmass.[2]

Cluster munition remnants

The US scattered a total of 413,130 tons (4.1 million kg) of submunitions over Vietnam between 1965 and 1973, striking 55 provinces and cities, including Haiphong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, and Vinh. Vietnam’s Military Engineering Command has recorded finding 15 types of US-made submunitions.[3] Most submunition types used by the US were air-dropped, but artillery-delivered submunitions were used in Quang Binh and provinces to the south of it.[4]

The Military Engineering Command has also encountered substantial amounts of cluster munitions abandoned by the US military, notably at or around old US air bases, including eight underground bunkers found in 2009, one of them covering an area of 4,000m2 and containing some 25 tons of munitions.[5]

Other explosive remnants of war

Vietnam estimates it still has between 350,000 and 600,000 tons of ERW to clear, including unexploded bombs, missiles, artillery shells, mortars, and grenades, which are affecting cities as well as rural areas in almost every province.[6] Incomplete US records showed it dropped 6.5 million larger bombs during the war.

BOMICEN, a unit of the Army Engineering Command, reported clearing a 12,000lb bomb in Gia Lai province in 2010, which it described as one of the two biggest bombs ever found in Indochina. To remove the bomb, an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team reportedly cleared hundreds of tons of earth and stone and extracted three and a half tons of explosive.[7] Construction workers in central Hanoi found bombs in early 2009 at a depth of 6m[8] and some UXO have reportedly been found at depths of up to 15m.[9] A cache of 131 items of ordnance, including mortars, 155mm artillery shells, and rocket-propelled grenades, discovered by clearance operators in early 2010 also point to the presence of abandoned explosive ordnance.[10]

Mines

Vietnam has a lesser problem of mines, mostly left by conflicts in the 1970s with neighboring Cambodia and China and affecting areas close to its borders with those countries,[11] but also around former US military installations.[12] Vietnam cleared an area up to 1km deep along its northern border under an agreement with China, but areas further inland from the border are still contaminated. Mines in those northern areas were emplaced by the military of both countries. Cambodian border areas are affected by randomly placed mines reflecting the more irregular nature of the fighting there.[13] Many ports and river deltas were mined extensively during the war and were not completely cleared when it ended and some sea mines have been found on the coast.[14]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

Body

Situation on 1 January 2011

National Mine Action Authority

Ministry of National Defense

Mine action center

BOMICEN/Vietnam Bomb and Mine Clearance Action Center (VBMAC)

International demining operators

Mines Advisory Group (MAG), Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), NPA/Project RENEW, PeaceTrees Vietnam, Solidarity Service International (SODI)

National demining operators

People’s Army of Vietnam/BOMICEN, military companies

Vietnam’s mine/UXO action sector has embarked on a process of restructuring and expansion aimed at accelerating clearance. Under a 2006 Prime Ministerial Decision, the Ministry of National Defense has overseen mine action at the national level with clearance undertaken by the Army Engineering Corps of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN),[15] and with BOMICEN, part of the Ministry of National Defense, acting as a central coordinating body for clearance and survey by national operators.[16]

In accordance with Prime Minister’s Decision No. 504 of December 2010, Vietnam is establishing a National Steering Committee (NSC) consisting of 12 members chaired by the Prime Minister, and including the Minister of Defense and of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) as deputy chairmen. The NSC will meet every six months to oversee mine action, deciding policy and budgets. Other members will include the Minister of Foreign Affairs, of Environment, of Education, and of Health. The NSC was expected to convene for the first time in the second half of 2011.[17]

The NSC will be supported by a 21-member Standing Committee or Executive Office, chaired by the Ministry of Defense, which is to meet quarterly to decide mine action priorities and make recommendations to the NSC. VBMAC, which opened in February 2009, will serve as secretariat to the NSC.[18]

VBMAC, set up as a civilian agency under MoLISA, has a mandate to accelerate clearance and mobilize international funding. VBMAC operates with departments for planning, project management, and finance. From May 2010, it also deployed a total of 200 personnel in eight clearance teams and one EOD team operating in central Vietnam’s Quang Tri province.[19] The restructuring coincides with plans for major expansion of mine action. It said spending on its clearance operations amounted to $89 million in 2009, rising to about $100 million in 2010, and would rise further in 2011 “for sure.”[20]

In 2010, VBMAC had said it was “the wish of the government to do everything possible to double national clearance capacity.” The Army Engineering Command considers it may be desirable to increase the number of national teams from 250 to around 600 in order to implement the government’s mine action plans for the next five years.[21] As the Engineering Command’s training college is not big enough to train the number of deminers needed, it has proposed to build two additional training facilities.[22]

In April 2010, the Prime Minister approved a Strategic Plan for 2010–2025, the objective of which is to “mobilize domestic and international resources in making efforts to minimize and finally create impact-free environment for social economic development.” For the period 2010–2015, the plan has set seven goals, namely to:[23]

·         complete the impact survey nationwide;

·         clear about 1,000km2 a year in support of the government’s socio-economic development plans and to promote public safety. The plan targets clearance in 2010–2015 of 2,000km2 in the six worst affected provinces that have already been surveyed and 3,000km2 in other provinces;

·         establish a Database Center “to collect and manage data on victims, contamination status and mitigation activities”;

·         develop national mine action standards;

·         conduct risk education (RE) in provinces with high UXO/mine casualties;

·         provide victim assistance, and provide resettlement for people in heavily affected provinces with high casualties; and,

·         implement awareness-raising projects on the presence and effects of ERW with a view to obtaining support from foreign governments, international organizations, international NGOs, and foreign and national individuals to support implementation of the plan.

VBMAC started work in 2010 on setting up the Database Center, with support from NPA under a memorandum of understanding that took effect in July 2010.[24] It will operate Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) New Generation, which is being installed in cooperation with the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining. This will serve as a national database, but the government is also considering plans to open two other regional databases: one in the central city of Hue and the second in Ho Chi Minh City in the south.[25]

Land Release

The Army Engineering Command reported that national operators undertook 513 tasks and cleared almost 612km2 in 2010, the first time it has publicly released clearance results. Much of the clearance involved tasks supporting national development projects.[26] It also estimated that clearance rates averaged about 200km2 a year between 1975 and 2007, rising to an average of 600km2 a year in 2008–2010.[27] International NGOs cleared an additional 7km2 of battle areas in 2010.

Survey in 2010

Army Engineering Command said teams completed survey of six provinces in 2010 but details were not immediately available. It said another 13 provinces would be surveyed in 2011. It planned to complete survey of the whole country in 2015 after surveying 12 southern provinces in 2012, 11 provinces in the northern Red River delta region in 2013, and 15 other northern provinces in 2014.[28]

Battle area and roving clearance in 2010

Clearance is mainly conducted by 250 teams of military engineers and 37 military companies, most with 22 to 25 personnel each. The Army Engineering Command has reported total clearance by these teams of 611.82km2 in 2010.[29] This includes clearance of approximately 4.5km2 by eight UXO/mine clearance teams and an EOD team deployed by VBMAC in Quang Tri province from May 2010.[30] International NGOs cleared 3.71km2 of battle area in 2010, but also conducted 10,272 roving tasks, which accounted for most of the items of UXO they destroyed.

MAG, after sharp cuts in personnel in 2009 due to lack of funding, was able to expand capacity to 144 staff by the end of 2010, including 120 deminers and three international staff. It operated in Quang Tri province with two EOD teams and a community liaison team and in Quang Binh province with four mine action and three community liaison teams, focusing on roving operations that resulted in completing 8,335 roving tasks and clearance of 7,586 items of UXO. In 2011 MAG planned to maintain the same capacity in Quang Binh province and increase its operational capacity in Quang Tri back to three mine action teams, one EOD team, and three Community Liaison teams.[31]

NPA and Project RENEW, operating with 27 deminers and three community support staff, continued to work through a community reporting network in two districts of Quang Tri province and conducted a total of 794 roving tasks. NPA also completed a needs assessment of Huong Tra District, Thua Thien Hue Province, in 2010. In 2011, it prepared for clearance operations (expected to start in 2012), setting up a technical survey team in May that underwent training to identify cluster munition strikes in accordance with methodology trialed by NPA in Laos. It planned to recruit additional teams in 2011 including a MultiTask Team to conduct survey, battle area clearance (BAC), and EOD.[32]

PeaceTrees Vietnam operated two teams with 18 deminers in 2010 undertaking BAC and roving tasks in Quang Tri province, but also formed a partnership with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which planned to set up an EOD team in 2011 to operate in Quang Binh province.[33]

SODI added a roving EOD team in Quang Tri province in 2010, operating with 118 deminers. It conducted technical survey in Quang Tri (1.4km2) and Thua Thien Hue province (1.5km2) to prepare for clearance in 2011, focusing on area clearance of land for agriculture and resettlement, small area tasks, and roving tasks. SODI set up an additional EOD team for Thua Thien Hue in May 2011 and trained one representative from each of 20 communes to act as a focal point to undertake community liaison, RE and identify risk areas.[34]

International NGO clearance in 2010[35]

Operator

Battle area cleared (m2)

No. of roving tasks completed

No. of submunitions cleared

No. of other UXO cleared

No. of mines cleared

MAG

64,367

8,335

1,197

7,586

0

NPA/Project RENEW

58,245

794

208

2,501

3

PeaceTrees Vietnam

736,326

276

0

11,139

0

SODI

2,849,269

867

1,443

19,580

66

Totals

3,708,207

10,272

2,848

40,806

69

Other Risk Reduction Measures

MoLISA took over the lead role in UXO/mine RE in 2010, with VBMAC due to act as its coordinating body, planning and mobilizing resources for RE.[36] Catholic Relief Services (CRS) used Community Mine Risk Education Outreach Teams in Quang Tri and Quang Binh provinces to deliver RE to high-risk groups in targeted communes, working in cooperation with provincial Departments of Education and Training and the Youth Union.[37] International NGOs engaged in mine/UXO clearance provided RE in Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces through community liaison or survey teams or through community networks.[38]

 



[1] Interview with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, Deputy Commander, PAVN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[2] BOMICEN/ VVAF, “Vietnam UXO/Landmine Impact Survey,” July 2009, p. 43.

[3] “Vietnam mine/ERW (including cluster munitions) contamination, impacts and clearance requirements,” Presentation by Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PAVN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[4] Handicap International (HI), Fatal Footprint, the Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions (Brussels: HI, November 2006), p. 15.

[5] Interview with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PAVN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[6] “Vietnam mine/ERW (including cluster munitions) contamination, impacts and clearance requirements,” Presentation by Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PAVN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[7] “Indochina’s biggest bomb removed,” BOMICEN, undated, www.bomicen.vn.

[8] “Construction workers find bombs in Hanoi,” DPA, 16 February 2009, www.earthtimes.org.

[9] Landmine Action, “Explosive remnants of war and mines other than anti-personnel mines,” London, March 2005, pp. 181–182.

[10] Project RENEW, “Large UXO cache found in Vung Ha clearance site,” 26 January 2010, www.facebook.com.

[11] Interview with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PVAN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[12] Landmine Action, “Explosive remnants of war and mines other than anti-personnel mines,” London, March 2005, p. 181.

[13] Interview with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PVAN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[14] Landmine Action, “Explosive remnants of war and mines other than anti-personnel mines,” London, March 2005, p. 181.

[15] Prime Minister’s Decision No. 96/2006/QD-TTg, 4 May 2006.

[16] Email from Col. Nguyen Trong Dac, Ministry of National Defense, 6 August 2006.

[17] Interview with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PVAN, Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Response to Monitor questionnaire by VBMAC, provided by email from VVAF, 19 August 2010.

[20] Interview with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PAVN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[21] Interviews with Col. Nguyen Trong Canh, Director, VBMAC, Hanoi, 10 April 2009; and with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PVAN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[22] Interview with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PVAN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[23] Prime Minister, “Decision on Approval of the National Mine Action Plan Period 2010–2025,” Hanoi, 21 April 2010.

[24] Interview with Gus Guthrie, Programme Manager, NPA, Hanoi, 22 April 2011.

[25] Interview with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PAVN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[26] Ibid.

[27] “Vietnam mine/ERW (including cluster munitions) contamination, impacts and clearance requirements,” Presentation by Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PAVN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[28] Interview with Sr. Col. Phan Duc Tuan, PAVN, in Geneva, 30 June 2011.

[29] Ibid.; and interview with Thao Griffiths, Country Representative, VVAF, Hanoi, 22 April 2011.

[30] Response to Monitor questionnaire by VBMAC, provided by email from VVAF, 19 August 2010.

[31] Emails from Hannah Bryce, Country Programme Manager, MAG, 25 April 2011 and 15 August 2011.

[32] Email from Paul Eldred, Operations Manager, NPA, Vietnam, 12 April 2011; and interview with Jonathan Guthrie, NPA, Hanoi, 22 April 2011.

[33] Emails from Milica Koscica, Program Coordinator, PeaceTrees Vietnam, 14 June 2011 and 15 August 2011.

[34] Email from Marion Gnanko, Project Manager, UXO/Mine Action, SODI, 29 April 2011.

[35] Emails from Hanna Bryce, MAG, 25 April 2011; Paul Eldred, NPA, 12 April 2011; Milica Koscica, PeaceTrees Vietnam, 14 June and 15 August 2011; and from Marion Gnanko, SODI, 29 April 2011.

[36] Response to Monitor questionnaire by VBMAC, provided by email from VVAF, 19 August 2010.

[37] Email from Sandra Rihtman, Country Representative, CRS, 11 August 2010.

[38] Emails from Paul Eldred, NPA, 12 April 2011; Milica Koscica, PeaceTrees Vietnam, 14 June 2011; and from Marion Gnanko, SODI, 29 April 2011.