“Yet, UXO clearance work in Laos is still unable to yield up sufficient land for agricultural production,” Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Mrs Onchanh Thammavong said at an official ceremony.
However, the government is working hard to remove all UXO.
Mrs Onchanh said that from 1996 to 2010, Laos cleared more than 27,000 hectares of UXO contaminated land, of which almost 19,000 hectares was agricultural land and 8,000 hectares was needed for development activities.
Over the same time period, almost 1,160,000 items of UXO were destroyed, of which 46 percent were sub-munitions from cluster bombs.
UXO risk education units have visited almost 12,735 villages, conducting community awareness activities on the dangers of UXO, with more than 2.4 million villagers benefiting from education campaigns, Mrs Onchanh pointed out.
Over 100 people were killed or injured in UXO accidents during the 2008-09 fiscal year, according to statistics from the National Regulatory Authority for UXO/Mine Action Sector in Laos (NRA).
Just one month ago in Phokham village, Vientiane province, Mrs Khamkong, a 28-year-old mother of two, was severally injured by UXO, United Nations Development Programme representative Ms Kyoko Yokosuka said at the opening ceremony of the event.
Mrs Khamkong was standing with relatives next to a stove when a massive explosion suddenly threw her to the ground.
She was unconscious when family members took her to a hospital. She had severe head injures and shrapnel had pierced her entire body, so the doctors had to transfer her to a hospital in Vientiane.
She immediately un-derwent surgery but her injuries were so serious that she is now completely paralysed, Ms Yokosuka said.
The victim’s family has pleaded for assistance, with one relative telling the NRA “Please help us to pay for the medical costs. My family is very poor. Please help my family!”
At the moment, it remains unclear whether Mrs Khamkong will receive any social or financial support for herself or her family, apart from a wheelchair produced in Vientiane by a Japanese NGO.
Ms Yokosuka said that the UN stands committed to supporting the Lao government in order to ensure that Mrs Khamkong and thousands of other UXO survivors, affected families and communities receive the support they are entitled to.
Although the Indochina War ended more than 30 years ago, people in rural areas of Laos continue to be killed and crippled every year by UXO.
The accidents often occur while people are farming, clearing land or collecting food in forests. Sadly, many victims are young children who pick up the devices as they search for scrap metal.
From 1965 to 1973 the equivalent of a planeload of bombs was dropped on Laos every eight minutes for nine years by US warplanes, amounting to over 2 million tonnes.
An estimated 30 percent of ordnance failed to explode on impact, mostly larger bombs and cluster sub-munitions.
Source: Vientiane Times
By Khonesavanh Latsaphao
April 5, 2011
