Date Killed: June 26, 2003

CPI Assistance: Family Bereavement Grant; compensation for emergency medical services, transportation, and nutritional support while hospitalized.

CPI considers the family members of a person killed by landmines or UXO to be survivors. If the person killed was a child, CPI assists the family through their difficult time by providing the necessary funds for any hospital expenses and a proper burial.

Cong Thanh commune lies next to Route #7, one of the major roads that turns west to link up with the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Lao. Because of its location, the road was bombed heavily during the war, and the bridge at the entrance of Ngoc Thuong village where Tran Khac Duyen lived was a regular target.

The bombardments ceased in this area of pure agriculture over 30 years ago. For the first time in decades, the farmers in Ngoc Thuong village could see a positive change in their homeland; in order to boost economic development, the province had decided to build a cassava-processing factory. There were big trucks and bulldozers already at the factory’s construction site. With their big size, noises, and bright colors, these machines were very attractive to the children from the country.

On the morning of June 24, 2003, Tran Khac Duyen went to look after his family’s ducks by the irrigation canal near the construction site. Here he met a bunch of other kids who were herding their buffaloes and cows. As they gathered to play some simple games together, three more kids walked up to the group.

One of the boys held something in his hands. He smiled to the other kids and said excitedly, “If you guys hold this thing up to your ear, you can hear something moving inside.” He held out the object for everyone to see, and the others were immediately curious.

The cluster bomb was then passed among the kids. One of them shook it in attempt to make the noise inside a bit clearer.

They would have played with the device for much longer if a man hadn’t passed by. He had been in the war and knew potential destruction when he saw it. He told the kids to get rid of the device immediately if they didn’t want to get killed.

Phan van Giang, a 14 year-old boy, was holding the bomb when the man issued his warning. He listened to the man, but was visibly disappointed that he’d have to get rid of the new toy. The kids all walked to the banks of the irrigation canal, and agreed to let Giang throw the device into the water. They all had seen their relatives go fishing with explosives, and if the device detonated under the water, the boys could potentially collect enough dead fish for lunch and dinner. Now that was a plan!

Remembering what he had seen on TV many times, Giang carefully chose his position near the canal, raised his hand clutching the bomb, and shouted out loud to the rest of the kids, “nam xuong!” -- “Fire in the hole!” He threw the bomb towards the water with an exaggerated motion.

The effort wasn’t enough, however, and when the bomb landed just short of the canal on the edge of a concrete slab, it exploded.

The fragments expelled as the bomb exploded injured all nine kids present. Three of them were seriously injured: Tran Khac Duyen, Nguyen Van Ngoc, and Nguyen Van Viet.

The explosion caused immediate panic in the village of Ngoc Thuong, and terrified parents rushed out to the site to find out if their own child had been injured, or worse yet, killed. All kids were immediately transported to the district hospital less than a kilometer from the village.

Due to their more serious injuries, Ngoc and Viet were forwarded to the children’s hospital in Vinh city. Duyen’s situation was worse and his injuries left him unable to be transported. After several attempts in vain to save his young life, the district doctors pronounced him dead at 07:40 on June 26, 2003. On July 10, 2003 the last injured children had returned home to his family.

Three days after the incident, another cluster bomb from the construction site detonated in a truck carrying fill from the site, causing minor damages to the truck. No casualties were reported.

CPI provided Duyen’s family with a Bereavement Grant to help pay for the boy’s funeral and then reimbursed the family for the services performed at the hospital. CPI also paid for the transportation, nutritional support, and hospital services for the other young survivors.