Text: Vietnamese Humanitarian Demining Experts End U.S. Tour
(Oct. 27 State Department media note)The State Department announced October 27 the completion of a two-week visit in the United States of Vietnamese military officials involved in that country's demining efforts.
The five-man delegation, the State Department said, was made up of senior Vietnamese military officers who manage their country's humanitarian demining program. They spent the two weeks visiting U.S. agencies and military facilities engaged in the U.S. humanitarian demining program.
The visit by the Vietnamese, the State Department added, follows the formal inclusion of Vietnam this summer in the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program.
Following is the text of the October 27 media note from the Office of the Spokesman:
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the SpokesmanOctober 27, 2000 (Revised)
MEDIA NOTE
Vietnamese Humanitarian Demining Experts Tour the United States
Today, Friday, October 27, 2000, a five-man delegation of senior Vietnamese military officers who manage their country's humanitarian demining program completed an historic and extensive two-week visit to U.S. agencies and military facilities involved in the United States' humanitarian demining program, the largest such operation in the world. Led by Senior Colonel Truong Quang Khanh, Deputy Commander, Chief of Staff, Engineering Command, Ministry of National Defense of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the five Vietnamese humanitarian demining experts learned about the full range of the U.S. Government's civilian and military humanitarian activities. Their visit follows the formal inclusion of Vietnam this summer in the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program.
Hosted by the U.S. Department of State, the delegation met with top State Department and U.S. Department of Defense officials who help formulate U.S. policy on landmines and manage U.S. humanitarian demining programs. The five Vietnamese officers also were briefed by representatives of leading U.S. non-governmental organizations engaged in mine action such as the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, James Madison University's Mine Action Information Center, Wheelchairs for the World, Peace Trees Vietnam, CARE, and the Marshall Legacy Institute. While in the Washington area, the Vietnamese demining experts visited three private corporations involved in mine clearance, mine awareness, and technical mapping assistance, respectively: RONCO Consulting Corporation, Star Mountain Incorporated, and Management Support Technology Incorporated.
Following briefings in Washington and tours of the U.S. Army's Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Center in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, and James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, the delegation visited the Global Training Academy, a leading provider of mine detection dogs located in Somerset, Texas, and the U.S. Army's Humanitarian Demining Training Center at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri.
The Vietnamese proceeded to Hawaii for briefings with senior civil and military officials at the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) and the Asia-Pacific Network, before beginning their return home to Vietnam today.
Their visit follows an historic bilateral agreement signed in June in which Vietnam agreed to join the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program in order to receive modern demining equipment and related assistance. Under the terms of the agreement, Vietnam will receive $1.75 million dollars of demining gear. This modern equipment will help Vietnam tackle its extensive landmine and unexploded ordnance problem which, in some regions, continues to pose a significant physical hazard and obstacle to economic recovery and development years after conflicts with France and then the United States.
In addition, and contingent on Vietnamese Government approval, the State Department will provide up to $1.4 million dollars to support a "Level One Impact" survey which will help the Vietnamese to prioritize those areas where landmines and unexploded ordnance pose the greatest threat to civilians and valuable arable land and infrastructure.
The U.S. Department of Defense has also committed $280,000 dollars for mine action and unexploded ordnance clearance in Vietnam. $200,000 of that aid will fund technical mapping of the impact areas of unexploded ordnance; $80,000 will be devoted to mine awareness education and landmine database support.
Even prior to the June agreement, the State Department funded a very successful mine awareness program in Quang Tri Province, a joint effort of Peacetrees Vietnam, an American non-governmental organization, and James Madison University's Mine Action Information Center. This program was developed in concert with provincial government officials and is now fully operated by Vietnamese organizations.
The United Nations and the U.S. State Department of State estimate that there are approximately 3.5 million landmines in Vietnam. Unexploded ordnance constitutes an additional threat. Quang Tri Province, which adjoins the former border between North and South Vietnam, is one of the most affected regions although mines and unexploded ordnance also pose a threat near the Vietnam-China border and regions bordering Laos. In 1999, a Vietnamese Government report claimed that as of May 1998, 38,248 people had been killed and 64,064 injured by landmines and unexploded ordnance. Sadly, mines and unexploded ordnance continue to claim Vietnamese victims. Vietnam suffers over 2000 casualties a year from landmines and unexploded ordnance. The U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Leahy War Victims Fund, which has provided $15 million in victims assistance programs to Vietnam since 1991, notes that after more than a half century of war, "Vietnam...has been left with perhaps the world's highest proportion of amputees..."
The Vietnamese Army has been engaged in humanitarian demining since the mid-1980s. During a meeting with the Vietnamese delegation, Colonel Mark Adams, Deputy Director of the State Department's Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs remarked: "We must acknowledge the expertise that Vietnam has developed in humanitarian demining since the end of the Vietnam War. Their expertise has been demonstrated by landmine clearance along their border with China and successful demining of more than 500 kilometers along the Ho Chi Minh Trail."
The United States was one of the first nations to initiate humanitarian demining assistance starting in late 1988, when it began supporting clearance of the vast numbers of landmines laid in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. Since 1993 alone, the U.S. has spent over $400 million on minefield surveys, mine clearance, mine awareness programs, and mine survivor rehabilitation around the world and will contribute nearly $100 million more in the current fiscal year. The U.S. Department of State's Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs now manages humanitarian demining assistance to 37 mine affected countries including Vietnam.
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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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