Almost 35 years after the country was liberated from foreign aggressors, people in Laos are still suffering from unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination, especially from cluster sub-munitions or bombies (as they are known locally).
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Unexploded bombies still contaminate much of Laos. | Lao people know cluster munitions as bombies. | A BLU3 bombie. |
According to the National Regulatory Authority UXO/Mine Action Sector in Laos (NRA), Laos is the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world as a result of the Indochina War from 1964-1973.
More than 288 million cluster munitions – 18 kinds of bombies – were dropped on Laos. After the country was liberated in 1975 more than 75 million unexploded bombies remained in Laos.
Each type of bombie explodes in a different way. The BLU26 bomb, for example, is impact-fired. This specific bomb was used more than any other kind in Laos, with almost 160 million dropped on the country. More than 41 million of the BLU26 bombs remained unexploded after the war, according to the NRA.
The NRA report on the UXO Problem and Operational Progress in Laos states that over the last decade there have been about 300 new UXO casualties annually, accidents caused by bombies rose to 30 percent of total casualties and 40 percent of total casualties were children.
“In order to reduce the number of people who are killed and injured in each province in the country, over 500,000 bombies have been cleared and destroyed over the past decade”, Public Relations Officer of the NRA Mr Bounpheng Sisawath said recently.
This number includes all kinds of bombies because they have yet to be categorised, he explained.
“Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world, but we're not only clearing bombies from our lands but we're clearing all UXO items that are found in the country,” he pointed out.
From 1996-2009, more than 1 million items of UXO were destroyed, including big bombs, cluster sub-munitions, mines and other UXO items. The NRA also reported that during the same period over 23,000 hectares of land for agricultural use and development were cleared in Laos.
“Our work is in humanitarian assistance to clear UXO in these heavily contaminated provinces in Laos,” he told Vientiane Times.
“Our task is to decrease the number of UXO deaths and injuries around the country, and to open up more agricultural land. This will also open up land for government development projects such as irrigation systems, hospitals, health care centres and schools,” he said.
On August 1, the Convention on Cluster Munitions entered into force – a day which was duly celebrated in Vientiane.
The Lao government will host the first meeting of the State Parties to the convention in November this year in Vientiane. The meeting will be of international significance, with hundreds of high ranking participants from all over the world expected to congregate in the capital.
UXO clea rance in Laos is a prerequisite for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and graduation from least-developed country status by 2020.
Currently, about 25 percent of villages in Laos, including 41 of the 47 poorest districts, are contaminated with UXO. In addition, about 50,000 people were killed or injured as a result of UXO accidents in the period from 1964-2008. Of these, 60 percent were killed.
A 2008 evaluation of the UXO sector showed that priority agricultural land could be cleared within 16 years at present capacity. By scaling up resources, however, that timeframe could be reduced to 10 years, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
By Khonesavanh Latsaphao
Vientiane Times, 2010
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