Mines Advisory Group

Community Awareness Messages:

1. Prohibitive messages.

• Don't touch
  
• Don't play
  
• Don't hit
  
• Don't throw
  
• Don't knock
  
• Don't move
  
• Don't extract explosives/fuses/ball bearings
  
• Don't use UXO for agricultural purposes (fishing, blowing up trees and rocks)
  
• Don't look for frogs or dig in bomb craters
  

2. Cautionary messages.

• Use a shovel not a hoe
  
• Cut brushwood 20 cm from the ground
  
• Always check the area where you are working, where there are bomblets on teh surface, there are inevitably more underground
  
• Be careful when making a small fire, raise the fire off the ground if possible, using stones
  
• Stand well back from a burning field
  
• Be careful when digging or driving a stake into the ground
  

3. Recognition of lethal ordnance

• Examples of all of the various types of UXO and mines are needed.
  
• UXO is particularly hard to identify because it is corroding and can take the colour of its environment.
  
• In Xieng-Khouang we divide the UXO into 3 general categories:
  
  • Bomblets (10 types found to date, teh most common being the Blu 26)
    
  • Miscellaneous UXO (mortars, recoiles rounds, handgrenades, ammunition, frag and inciendiary bombs, rockets, etc.)
    
  • Big Bombs
    
• Mines have also been found
  

• Why a bomblet explodes unpredictably: an explanation of the different types of fuses and why they may have malfunctioned is necessary.
  
• The dangers of phosphorous and chemical contamination
  
• The lethal range of various types of UXO
  

• When you find UXO tell the village headsman so that he can inform everyone in the village
  
• Mark the UXO so visitors will know where it is and children will be reminded of the danger
  
• Teach your children the safety messages and set them a good example
  

Target Groups for community Awareness messages:
Based on accident figures collected in Xieng-Khousang, 1973-1995

41 % of deaths and injuries involve men (15 + years)

42 % of deaths and injuries involve children (predominantly boys)

17 % of deaths and injuries involve women (predominantly Hmong women)

General Messages for the target groups:

Children 1-7 years:

Don't touch anything suspicious
Run away if you see anyone touching UXO
Tell an adult if you see anything and you don't know what it is

Men:

Be careful when farming
Don't extract/move/use explosives for farming etc
Mark any UXO you find
Teach your children

Be careful when farming (particularly Hmong women)
Mark any UXo you find
Teach your children