Politics

US State Department Under Secretary travels to Quang Tri

Rose Gottemoeller, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security for the US State Department, had a working session with key official of central Quang Tri province on cooperation activities to overcome consequences of bombs and mines left by the war in the locality on March 2.
Rose Gottemoeller, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control andInternational Security for the US State Department, had a workingsession with key official of central Quang Tri province on cooperationactivities to overcome consequences of bombs and mines left by the warin the locality on March 2.

During the meeting withGottemoeller, the Quang Tri authorities spoke highly of the USGovernment’s and non-government organisations’ contributions tosurveying and clearing the unexploded ordnance (UXO) of war in theprovince.

They also expressed their hope forcontinued assistance in projects on bomb and mine clearance, educationon landmine, help for UXO victims, and development in the future.

On her part, Gottemoeller spoke highly of the ongoing model onovercoming bomb and mine consequences in Quang Tri, saying that it canbe applied in UXO-contaminated areas across the world.

In 2015,the US Government will provide 8 million USD for Quang Tri to establishan UXO tracking database centre in order to help detect and earlydeal with areas heavily contaminated by UXOs, she said.

Duringher trip to the province, Gottemoeller visited the Quang Tri bomb andmine action centre, the scene of the bomb and mine clearance projects bythe Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and the Norwegian People’s Aid(NPA) in Trang Soi hamlet, Trieu Ai commune, Trieu Phong district.

Shealso visited the Quang Tri Mine Action Database Unit, PeaceTreesVietnam’s Danaan Perry Landmine Education Centre.

Quang Tri is the first province in Vietnam getting the VietnameseGovernment’s approval to pilot an international cooperation programme onclearing UXOs with the PeaceTrees Vietnam Organisation in 1996.

Over the past 20 years, surveying and clearing UXOs in the provincehas achieved considerable achievements, helping reduce the number ofbomb-and-mine-related accidents to 127 during the period of 2008-2014from 456 cases in the 2001-2007 period.

By the end 2014, 8,399 hectares of UXO-contaminated land in Quang Tri has been freed from 556,448 explosive materials.-VNA
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