The underreporting of landmine and explosive remnants of war injuries in Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Viet Nam

Abstract

Injuries place an enormous burden on individuals, households, and communities and they exacerbate poverty.1 A substantial but often under-recognized cause of injury in post-conflict environments is the presence of land mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), such as abandoned ordnance or weapons and cluster munitions, bombs, mortars or other devices that failed to detonate on impact but remain volatile and can explode if touched or moved. This under-recognition, which is partly the result of underestimates, has global implications because it affects to what extent the resources assigned to injury prevention and the rehabilitation of injured people are prioritized. This paper provides detailed case studies of three countries that are heavily contaminated with land mines and ERWs and where mine action pro- grammes – i.e. programmes for humanitarian, non-military purposes – have been in place for a long time: Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and Viet Nam. The purpose is to illustrate the degree to which injuries caused by land mines and ERW are underreported. The paper highlights how little has been published in the health literature on the subject of land mines and ERW and the failure to include available national data on the injuries caused by these devices in global burden of disease (GBD) estimates. The GBD is a measure that combines the contribution of both mortality and impaired functionality resulting from a range of diseases and injuries to provide a national ranking for comparing disease burdens across countries and, by implication, for assessing the relative importance of a given health problem at the national and global levels. Hence, underreporting is of global relevance. Language: en