Clearing the land: Groups strive to rid Vietnam of wartime devices of devastation

They're called "bombies" or "bomblets." They look like a child's toy -- round, the size of a baseball, good for tossing back and forth. They hide among the tall grass and shrubs, nestled there like Easter eggs waiting to be found.

But when they are found -- and they are often discovered by children -- these devices become flesh rippers and limb destroyers.

Vietnamese children stand in front of a pile of spent SUU-30 containers, each capable of carrying up to 300 BLU-26 "bomblets." The deadly leftover explosives from the Vietnam War continue to kill and maim people, many of them children. MARTHA HATHAWAY PHOTOS

These "bombies" are explosives -- the mutilating remnants of a war that will have been over 26 years at the end of this month, yet is still killing.

In Vietnam, bombies are everywhere -- and so are land mines, grenades, rockets, mortars, anti-aircraft ammunition and white-phosphorus bombs.

"A lot of times the children will be blinded by the shrapnel or they'll have shrapnel imbedded all over their bodies," says Dr. Frank Cobarrubia, who recently sold his podiatry practice in Chelan so he could travel to Asia. Sometimes the children lose arms and legs completely. "It's really quite atrocious."

Cobarrubia is the medical adviser to Clear Path International, a new humanitarian group based on Bainbridge Island, and one of several Seattle-area groups working in Vietnam.

Clear Path -- a project of the Greater Seattle Vietnamese Association -- has two goals: get rid of leftover explosives in Vietnam and help the children and families who've been injured by these devices.

The Vietnam Medical Project in San Jose and Clear Path have teamed up to help send Cobarrubia and a group of volunteer physicians to central Vietnam where they will treat injured and deformed children in Da Nang and Dong Ha. The two organizations have begun a drive to raise $10,000 to pay for medical supplies, equipment, lodging and language interpretation.

For Cobarrubia the medical work is especially important. Treating land mine victims was a goal he shared with his wife, Jodi, a photographer. The 34-year-old woman died from a heart attack last year.

"When she died, I just didn't know what to do," Cobarrubia says. "This seemed like a good avenue to put my energy into."

The team of physicians will treat 100 or so injured children in the Quang Tri Province at no charge. This part of Vietnam came under some of the most intense attacks during the war.


	The baseball-size BLU-26 or "bomblet" is often found within easy reach of children. MARTHA HATHAWAY PHOTOS

"This area was devastated by years of fighting right around the demilitarized zone," says Imbert Matthee, co-founder and executive director of Clear Path as well as a former Pacific Rim correspondent for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "This area was carpet bombed. There was Agent Orange sprayed. There was so much fighting that the whole infrastructure and the economy was completely devastated."

To this day the leftover bombs are a constant reminder and accidental explosions are a weekly occurrence. Many families are so poor they cannot pay to have debilitating injuries properly cared for, so they simply go untreated.

"Kids in this country can run around anywhere and not think twice," Matthee says. "But for these (Vietnamese) children, the war is not over."

Cobarrubia and the other doctors also will work with children suffering from birth defects, polio, cerebral palsy and other musculo-skeletal disorders at the Da Nang Orthopedic & Rehabilitation Center. Those children who cannot be treated in Dong Ha, Da Nang or at the National Institute for Pediatrics in Hanoi, may be brought to the United States for surgery, Matthee says.

But this medical mission, scheduled for June, is just a part of the grander Clear Path plan.

Only seven months old, the organization already has procured grant money from the Freeman Foundation in Vermont to train, equip and supervise a team of 24 Vietnamese in the dangerous art of explosives removal.

In March, these "deminers" began clearing explosives from 110 acres of land in the Quang Tri Province on the former Dong Ha Combat Base (previously the forward headquarters for the U.S. 3rd Marine Division). When they're finished with the work (expected by the fall of 2002) it will be the largest explosives clearance project to be completed in Vietnam by an American non-government organization.


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The land will be used for three things: new homes, fish farming and organic farming.

"It's a good project," says Son Michael Pham, president of the Greater Seattle Vietnam Association. "And it's a project that is well needed in Vietnam."

Matthee says Clear Path hopes to do similar work in Cambodia and is currently in the process of registering as a humanitarian demining organization with the Cambodian Mine Action Authority. Clear Path also is in the midst of sponsoring the construction of a shelter for street children and orphans in Nepal. Cobarrubia will visit both countries on behalf of the organization during his trip overseas.

"We're ambitious, but the need is so enormous," Matthee says.

Clear Path is just the newest Seattle-area organization to delve into serious humanitarian work in Vietnam. In fact, Washington residents -- and Bainbridge folks especially -- seem to have an affinity for the country that made such an indelible mark on the United States.

An organization called Kids First Vietnam will use a large part of the land cleaned of explosives by Clear Path deminers as part of a rehabilitation village. This organization (based in Bainbridge) is building the village in Dong Ha for the care and training of handicapped young people, says co-founder Roger Ferrell.

The land will be used to teach young people how to farm and raise animals. Last year Kids First completed a 12-classroom elementary school.

PeaceTrees Vietnam (yet another Bainbridge-based group) has been working in Vietnam since 1995. The founders of Clear Path previously worked for this organization before breaking off to start their own.

"Our mission is to reverse the legacy of war through working together with the Vietnamese people," says Jerilyn Brusseau, co-founder of PeaceTrees.

The organization is building a PeaceTrees Friendship Village for land mine victims and their families also on the former Dong Ha Combat Base. The village will include a kindergarten, a community hall, sports fields and homes for 100 poor families. The group broke ground on the facility in February.

"The more the merrier," Matthee says. "If you were to go to Vietnam, you would quickly realize the need is so enormous there is plenty of room for all of us and then some."

If you want to help:

For more information on Seattle-area humanitarian groups working in Vietnam, see the following Web pages:

Clear Path International: www.clearpathinternational.org
To make a tax-deductible donation to its their current medical mission, send money to 321 High School Road N.E., No. 574, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110; 206-780-5964.

Kids First Vietnam: www.kidsfirstvietnam.org
Focuses on educating poor and disabled children in Vietnam.

PeaceTrees Vietnam: www.peacetreesvietnam.org
Helps with explosives removal and education as well as citizen diplomacy efforts. The group also plants trees in Vietnam to restore the land and as a gesture of good will.

Helping and Loving Orphans (HALO): www.helpingorphans.org
Helps disadvantaged children and orphans in Vietnam, Philippines and Coloumbia.

Prosthetics Outreach Foundation: www.pofsea.org
Provides modern prosthetics to amputees in developing nations such as Vietnam, Philippines and Nicaragua.

P-I reporter Winda Benedetti can be reached at 206-448-8223 or windabenedetti@seattle-pi.com

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