Chairman of the Vietnam Bombs and Mines Action Support Association (VBMASA)Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Duc Soat said at a conference in Hanoi on December 24 toreview the association’s operation over the past five years that theorganisation will pay attention to improving the efficiency of livelihoodsupport for the victims in the coming time.
It will coordinate with charitable and humanitarian organisations to expand theabove-mentioned models, and provide medical checkups and treatment for poor andpeople with disabilities, victims of bombs, mines and Agent Orange/dioxin intargeted, remote and ethnic minority areas, he said.
Campaigns will be promoted to raise public awareness of preventing andovercoming post-war consequences, he added.
According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs,Vietnam is one of countries most contaminated with UXOs.
It is estimated that about 800,000 tonnes of UXOs were left across the countryafter the war ended in 1975, mostly in the central region. Some 6.13 millionhectares of land are polluted with or suspected of being polluted with UXOs,accounting for 18.82 percent of the country’s total area.
Since 1975, UXO incidents have killed more than 40,000 people and injured60,000 others, most of whom were breadwinners of their families or children./.