As part of the course, participants joined in a workshop at Vietnam National Mine Action Centre on Friday. Here, international participants exchanged experience with Vietnamese experts about mine action techniques and equipment.
In-land mobile mine action equipment and offshore bomb detectors, together with other mine action technologies and experience from the Vietnam National Mine Action Centre were exchanged with foreign students at a training course organised by the centre. The Vietnamese expert's technique of handling landmines and unexploded ordinances, or UXOs, impressed many participants.
Vietnam is considered to be highly contaminated by landmines and UXOs, with the total contaminated area accounting for 21 percent of the country’s land. The majority of contaminated areas are in steep mountainous regions, having been swept away by floods, or into the ocean covered by coral reefs. This has caused more challenges for UXO clearance activities.
The training course, titled “High-level management in landmines and UXO clearance”, is co-organized by James Madison University’s Center for International Stabilization and Recovery in the USA, the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, the Association for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, and the Vietnamese government.
