A piece of explosive ordnance left over from the Vietnam War killed a 24-year-old mother in Gio Son commune, Gio Linh district of Quang Tri province on May 1st, 2005. Tran Thi Tuyet and her husband were clearing vegetation in an area once known as the Con Tien firebase to plant banana trees. The land had long been abandoned by farmers due to its dificult to farm terrain still pockmarked by bomb craters.

Tuyet gathered dried leaves in a crater to burn and inadvertently ignited a piece of ordnance of an unknown nature. The powerful blast killed her immediately. She leaves behind a husband and a son.

<photo: Tuyet's son stands before her funeral shrine in their home, click to enlarge>