83% of land contaminated with explosives in Vietnamese province

Hanoi, Sep 26 (IANS) Over 390,000 hectares of land in Vietnam's Quang Tri province remains contaminated with mines and explosives, an official said on Monday.

More than 83 per cent of his province's land is contaminated with mines and explosives, Hoang Nam, head of Department of Foreign Affairs in Quang Tri province, said.

Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Quang Tri has reported over 8,500 casualties caused by mines and explosives, over 30 per cent of which were children, Xinhua news agency reported.

Over the past 20 years, international non-governmental organisations have conducted bomb clearance on over 116 million hectares of heavily-contaminated land, safely handled 600,000 bombs and explosives in all kinds in Quang Tri, Nam added.

According to the 1954 Geneva Conference, Quang Tri was where a Demilitarised Zone was created to separate the two factions of North and South Vietnam.