18 October 2009
UXO LAO – an important piece of information
Posted by oulin under: travel .
Laos is sadly the most heavily bombed nation in the world. During the height of the Vietnam War, more than half a million US bombing missions were carried out between the years 1964 to 1973, now knows as the Secret War. It delivered more than two million tons of explosive ordnance on the country. This includes an estimate of more than 266,000,000 anti-personnel sub-munitions, known as “bombies” in Lao, released from cluster bombs and a recorded number of 500,000 missions based on the U.S. bombing records. 30% of these ordnances failed to explode including 78,000,000 bombies. These UXO contaminated 15 provinces with 25% of all villages in the country and are still causing casualty and injuries nowadays. 
The Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme (UXO Lao) was established with the support of UNDP, UNICEF and other stakeholders in 1996. The main tasks are to reduce the number of casualties caused by UXO through risk education, and increase the amount of land available for food production and other socio-economic development activities through UXO clearance activities. The UXO Lao include the following provinces in the operation: Luangprabang, Huaphanh, Xiengkhuang, Khammuane, Savannakhet, Saravane, Sekong, Champasack and Attapeu.
Although with the enormous effort of the dedicated members and continuous supports, financially and technically, from many countries, due to the difficulties of the operation and lack of human resource, UXO Lao only succeeded to remove or destroy 801,013 items (3983 big bombs, 371,869 bombies, 5,744 mines and 419,417 other UXO) from 1996 to 2007. It covers only 0.47% of the unexploded bombies. What a poor percentage. If it couldn’t receive more international attention and supports and continues in this pace, Lao people will not be able to lead a normal life without their daily nightmare in a hundred years! 
I went to visit the UXO Lao Center in Xiangkuang Province with my new friend Iona from Scotland, who, like many Europeans, had never learnt about the Secret War. We found the office was situated in a very limited equipped one story house 2km outside of Phosavan. Mr. Khing Pet gave me a brief introduction of the operation and the area they covered in this province. There are normally 15 teams sent out everyday to carry out different tasks, including clearance and roving. When I asked if there was a possibility for us to visit a bomb site they are working on, he made a quick phone call and grinned at us: “ This is your lucky day. We have a team working only 20km away getting ready for an explosion. I will take you there.” That became one of the most unforgettable experiences in my life.
A video will be loaded on Youtube after it’s edited, which link I will post here once it’s done. I was not allowed to climb higher or get closer to have a clear shot of the explosion. Therefore the explosion scene shown in the video might not seem as powerful as I witnessed. I am hoping more people will be aware of this fact and take action in helping this country out of its poverty caused by the cruelty of a war they were not supposed to be involved in.
For more photos, please go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157622609684234/
5 Comments so far...
Rikki Says:
27 October 2009 at 11:35 pm.
你回来的时候所有人都以为你是马来人或者是菲律宾来着！哈哈！还有从意大利带来的巧克力，再不回来可要化在偶嘴里咯！^-^
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11 November 2009 at 1:19 am.
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13 November 2009 at 10:13 am.
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Crasty Says:
16 November 2009 at 9:21 am.
Interesting and informative. But will you write about this one more?
