Legacy of weaponry

Published: 13 August, 2010

• THIS month the international ban on cluster weapons came into being.

While the ban is to be welcomed, for many it will have come too late, they have been either killed or injured.

There are millions of these vile weapons still in the soil waiting for the innocent person to become victim.

Let me give an example of one country, Vietnam, in which these weapons, 35 years after the war ended, are still claiming their victims.

With the amount of bombs, shells and clusters weapons dropped on the country during the war it has been estimated to take over 300 years to remove the unexploded ordnance from the soil of Vietnam. Since the war ended 2,774 have been killed, 3,986 injured from cluster weapons alone.

This week (Tuesday) the country and its friends around the world commemorate the 49th anniversary of the use by the US of the chemical Agent Orange, another weapon that has caused untold misery. Not only did Agent Orange destroy vast areas of the magnificent forests of the country, the animal life within them, but also crops and poisoned the rivers and lakes. 

Agent Orange, of which 80 million litres were sprayed over areas of South Vietnam, was itself contaminated by Dioxin the world’s most dangerous poison, which found its way into the food chain. As a result thousands of babies died in the wombs of their mothers, many thousands more were born with severe deformities and illnesses.

One in 20 of the population of Vietnam is affected by the use of Agent Orange.

The convention that has banned the use of cluster weapons also states that those who used them are responsible for removing them from the soil of the country.

We renew our call for those responsible to clean up the contaminated areas of Vietnam and to pay compensation to the victims and their families.

LEN ALDIS
Secretary 
Britain-Vietnam 
Friendship Society 
www.lenaldis.co.uk