A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
OF The CAMBODIA DAILY
A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT |
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OF The CAMBODIA DAILY |
UXO Problem Plagues Border Areas
| In the early 1970s an American warplane swooped down and
dropped a 225 kg bomb on a Cambodian hillside. But instead of exploding, the bomb glanced
off the hilltop and lodged halfway down a slope. Some 25 years later, Walter Fiers headed his pickup truck northwest from Phnom Penh into Kampong Chhnang to help deal with the bomb, which was reported to CMAC by local villagers. Dutch-born Fiers, 49, is an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) adviser who has been called in to help the local EOD team plan how to deal with the bomb. |
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The US is reported to have dropped perhaps half a million tons of bombs on Cambodia. Some were used to support Lon Nol troops against the Khmer Rouge. Most were dropped in the eastern part of Cambodia, where the Ho Chi Minh trail wound through Laos and Cambodia and into southern Vietnam.
"Basically, east of the Mekong is a really big unexploded ordnance (UXO) dump," said Tim Lardner, a former British Army officer now an adviser to a CMAC demining unit.
Mines and the smaller types of UXO more common farther west in Cambodia are often found together because mines are laid around infantry battle positions. During fighting, rockets, grenades and mortars misfire. They are more widely scattered than mines.
Exactly how much UXO remains lying out there is unknown. "You cannot define the problem," says Fiers. "All you can know is you have a dud rate of 10 percent. Or be certain that the cluster bombs’ dud rate is 30 percent. [Those are] the only real figures you have."
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Since clearance operations began in 1992, about 80,000 mines
have been removed from the ground, compared to 400,000 UXOs, according to CMAC figures. Fiers and the EOD men walk 150 meters from the pickups to the bomb. It is nose-down in a hole about 1.5 meters deep. An EOD man shovels dirt out, trying to expose the fuse in the nose while another plots the position on a satellite receiver. Examination reveals that this is an American 500 pound bomb with standard fuses. It is safe to move. The four men huddle together and decide they will rig a block and tackle, then slide it down the slope into a hole. There, they will cover it with sand and explode it. "The problem comes when you move it and you drop it and it goes off," explains Fiers. |
Most accidents, says Fiers, occur with small mortar shells or 40 mm grenades, which often have anti-handling devices.
The EOD men generally blow the small shells in place. They deal with anything, from bombs to grenades to rockets. It is a delicate and demanding work. Team members are selected from the ranks of experienced deminers and then receive more training which can last another two years.
Walking back down the slope, the EOD men identify two likely spots to explode the bomb. They will draft the plan for getting in enough helpers and a mechanical digger to make a hole and lower the bomb into it, probably in a month or two.
Fiers will oversee the plan but he won’t write it for them. "That doesn’t work because they don’t get the experience," said Fiers.
In the past, EOD teams have concentrated on areas with most reported casualties. A recent survey funded by NGOs shows that 70 percent of all casualties are in the northwest of Cambodia, with half in just 20 districts.
In future Fiers said he would like to see EOD teams working in every province, ready to respond to reports from villages. And he would like to see a new national reporting system set up to collect those reports. There are 20 EOD teams working at CMAC and four with the Mines Advisory Group. "I could have 100 teams in the field and keep them busy every day for the next five years," said Fiers.
"Demining will be under control in five to 10 years. Then you will have only EOD," he said. At Ypres in Belgium, where a series of World War I battles were fought, UXOs are still being blown up by disposal squads twice daily.
Story & Photos By Douglas Grindle
