Farmers risk all in daily battle with UXO

As UXO clearance progresses slowly, desperate farmers are deciding to run the risk of triggering a detonation by clearing their land to plant crops before qualified clearers reach their area.

This is the case in Pakxong district, Champassak province, in the south of Laos, which is home to the fertile Bolaven Plateau area. This region has a cool climate and high rainfall and is where coffee is grown in the nutrient-rich volcanic soil.

The coffee grown in Pakxong district is the finest quality coffee found in Laos and is renowned for its rich flavour.


Coffee is the main crop for farmers here, who rely on it to augment their income.

Last week the National Regulatory Authority for UXO/Mine Action Sectors in Laos arranged a field trip to visit a 2-hectare coffee farm contaminated with UXO in Nonglae village.

Coffee farmer Ms Kaykham Keosimeuang, 21, told Lao media she planted coffee trees six months before clearers from the Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme (UXO Lao) arrived to remove any unexploded munitions.

She had asked her village office to contact UXO Lao and get them to clear her land, but after several months they had not arrived.
“I decided to cut down the trees and shrubs so I could burn the land,” she said.
“While I was doing this I found about 20 cluster sub-munitions, or what we call bombies.”

But she found that no one would plough the land with tractors.
“They were afraid bombs would explode while they were ploughing,” she explained.
Then the Champassak branch of UXO Lao sent its roving team to blow up the devices she had found.
Provincial UXO coordinator Mr Chansy Phoumya said “She was very lucky that no devices exploded while she was planting the coffee trees.”

“Many of the holes she dug to plant the trees were close to UXO that was found by our clearers,” he noted.
“Most of the munitions we found were about half a metre from the nearest tree.”

Since 1997, 71 people have been injured and 44 people killed by UXO in Champassak province.
“We worked slowly as we cleared Ms Kaykham’s land. About 400 hectares of farmland are allocated to us for clearing each year, but we can clear only 220 hectares in one year,” he told Lao media.

“If people want us to clear their land because they want to sell it, we don’t do it. Some people are lazy and just don’t want to cut the trees and shrubs on their land, so we don’t check this land for munitions either.”
The UXO clearers started to clear Ms Kaykham’s land on February 15. So far they’ve found over 10 sub-munitions buried in the ground. They expect to finish the job early next month.

It is estimated that out of the 2 million tonnes of bombs, including 288 million cluster bombs that were dropped on Laos by US warplanes during the Indochina War between 1964 and 1973, about 30 percent did not detonate.

Source: Vientiane Times
By Khonesavanh Latsaphao
February 22, 2011