A 41 year-old man was killed by a Vietnam War-era piece of ordnance on July 22nd, 2005 in the Vinh Linh district of Quang tri province, Vietnam.
Nguyen Cuu Lam dicovered the bomb while working in the fields and was trying dismantle it to sell the metal for scrap when it exploded and killed him instantly.
Many people in this poor, rural area resort to dismantling bombs they find in order to augment their meager incomes, often to deadly results.
Although the Vietnam War ended 30 years ago, by some estimates over 350,000 tons of bombs that did not detonate when dropped remain in the ground. This ordnance regularly claims lives and limbs in this still war-ravaged province. Since the conflict ended in 1975, nearly 40,000 Vietnamese have been killed by by these munitions.
Clear Path International serves landmine and bomb accident survivors, their families and their communities in former war zones in Southeast Asia. This assistance takes the form of both direct and indirect medical and social services to survivor families as well as equipment support to hospitals. Current Clear Path projects are in Vietnam, Cambodia and on the Thai-Burma border.
More information about Clear Path International can be found on the web at www.cpi.org.
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