Vietnamese victims of unexploded US bombs

Vietnam says it will take the country a century and billions of dollars to clean up the unexploded ordnance left over from the Vietnam War. According to Vice Defense Minister Senior Lt. Gen. Nguyen Huy Hieu, US forces used 15 million tons of bombs and ammunition during the Vietnam War and an estimated 800,000 tons of unexploded armaments still contaminate 20 percent of the country. The unexploded munitions littering the country have left more than 42,000 people dead since the conflict ended over three decades ago, Hieu added. More than 62,000 people have been injured -- tens of thousands of them have been permanently disabled - due to the occurrence of deadly accidents on a daily basis. Hieu's figures did not include the casualties of neighboring Laos and Cambodia, which were also heavily bombed by the US during the conflict and where thousands of people have died in ordnance accidents since 1975. The senior official said that removing all unexploded ammunition from the country would take more than a century and would cost tens of billions of dollars, resulting in major economic losses for Vietnam. The millions spent by Vietnam to clear the remaining undiffused armaments have so far led to the cleaning up of 3 percent of the contaminated areas.