U.S. Move to Suspend Mine Clearing Funds Alarms Vietnam
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Large swaths of land in Southeast Asia are littered with unexploded bombs dropped by American forces during the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam War ended half a century ago, but American weapons from that era continue to kill people to this day. Unexploded bombs rained down by American troops are littered across large swaths of Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia and Laos. They have killed tens of thousands and maimed many more since the fighting ended.
People have been working to clear out these bombs for decades, but experts say it may take another 100 years to finish the job. The United States is a big part of the effort and has given out more than $750 million over the past three decades to clear out the unexploded ammunition in the three countries.
But that funding has come to a grinding halt.
On Saturday, the State Department said it was suspending its global mine-clearing programs for at least three months. It followed a Trump administration announcement of sweeping pauses of U.S. foreign aid. These moves will ripple through many parts of the world where the United States helps pay for disaster relief, aid for refugees as well as health and anti-poverty programs. Even though the long-term effects of the funding pause are unclear, some experts warned of deadly consequences, particularly in places strewn with land mines, cluster munitions and other unexploded bombs.
“There is a good chance people are going to die,” said Bill Morse, who co-founded Cambodian Self Help Demining and the Landmine Relief Fund. “Somebody is going to walk into a minefield that should have been cleared this week, boom.”
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In Vietnam, there was bewilderment. Tran Phu Cuong, director of a government agency responsible for managing international aid into Vietnam, pointed out that the Vietnamese people are still living with the lingering effects of the “unjust” war. Those include the unexploded bombs and the lasting effects of “Agent Orange,” the chemical toxin that the Americans sprayed during the war that has been linked to cancers and birth defects.