---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 17:42:59 -0700
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: U.S.-made bomblet kills boy and woman in Vietnam
April 2002: U.S.-made bomblet kills boy and woman in Vietnam
Reuters. April 22, 2002
HANOI -- An 11-year-old boy and middle-aged woman were killed and three
people hurt when a U.S.-made bomblet left over from the Vietnam War
exploded at the weekend.
An official of the People's Committee of Ky Son district in the
northern
province of Nghe An told Reuters the boy had picked up the small bomb
and it exploded when he dropped it walking to his home on Saturday
evening.
"He thought it could be a toy, so he took it home and accidentally
dropped it," said the official, who did not want to be identified.
The explosion killed a 45-year-old woman standing nearby with a child
on
her back, who was injured. A female teacher and her child were also
injured.
The official said four secondary school pupils were killed five years
ago in a similar accident in the same district.
"There are still many bombs left from the war in the area, although
army
engineers have checked many times," he said.
Explosions of ordnance from war that ended in 1975 kill and maim dozens
of people each year, many of them children.
Many of the injuries are caused by anti-personnel cluster bomblets that
were dropped in large numbers by U.S. forces and designed to resemble
tropical fruits like guavas or pineapples.
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