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Title: Leftover firearms killed 42,000
Source:
AP
URL Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breakin ... sia/Story/STIStory_396850.html
Published: Jul 7, 2009
Author: Staff
Post Date: 2009-07-07 21:01:52 by Horse
Keywords: None
Views: 98
Comments: 2
HANOI - UNEXPLODED ordnance left over from the Vietnam War has killed more than 42,000 people in the country since the conflict ended more than three decades ago, and deadly accidents continue daily, a senior military official said on Monday. US forces used 15 million tonnes of bombs and ammunition during the war and an estimated 800,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance still contaminates 20 per cent of the country's area, Vice Defence Minister Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Huy Hieu wrote in the state-run People's Army newspaper. He said it may take more than 100 years to clear the contaminated area. In addition to the deaths, some 62,000 people have been injured since the end of the war in 1975, and tens of thousands of them are permanently disabled, he said, adding that the ordnance has also caused big economic losses to Vietnam. Mr Hieu said the government, helped with funds from international organisations and countries including the United States, has cleared more than 3 per cent of the contaminated area. It may cost tens of billions of dollars to finish the job, he said. Mr Hieu's figures apparently did not include casualties in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia, which were also heavily bombed by the United States during the conflict and where thousands of people have also died in ordnance accidents since 1975. Ordnance from other countries - including from the former Soviet bloc, which helped supply weapons to communist forces - also contribute to the war's deadly legacy in Indochina. -- AP
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#1. To: Horse (#0)
DOW (Corning), lets you do great things!
"This is suspicious at best. Sounds like a bunch of nutty conspiracy theorists, or, as others have pointed out, a government program to find nutty conspiracy theorists who could be dangerous."
Oh for FUXSAKE, this is NOT "leftover firearms", it's leftover unexploded ORDINANCE! Like, for example, BOMBS and crap like that! What an utterly misleading and inaccurate headline. Whoever wrote this twaddle should be made to go slam-dancing in a minefield while being shot at by over-caffeinated junior NRA members.
and tens of thousands of them are permanently disabled
#2. To: Horse (#0)
 | Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
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