The Military Command of the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai has safely defused a 60kg bomb in Tran Yen district on Jan 11. The bomb, believed to be from the French colonial time, was discovered on January 7 lying 60m from a residential area. The Military Command deployed 56 officers to defuse the bomb. A preliminary survey in 2002 showed that nearly 9,300 communes with 6.6 million hectares of land across Vietnam were contaminated with unexploded ordnances (UXOs), accounting for 21.1% of the country’s land. The central region is the most contaminated. UXOs claimed 42,135 lives and injured 62,163 others from 1975 to 2000. The State has spent tens of millions of USD every year on UXO disposal and providing training to and resettling UXO victims. (VOV.vn Jan 12)
