It's a sad fact that many victims of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos were abandoned because there were no organisations on hand to help them after the Indochina War ended.
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Prosthetic arms help victims carry out necessary everyday tasks. |
In 2006, the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) for the UXO/Mine Action sector in Laos was established as a joint operation between the UNDP and the Lao government, under a Prime Ministerial decree. The NRA is not an operational body, but has a regulatory function for all UXO activities within Laos.
Currently, the NRA's victim assistance unit is progressing on building a strategic plan for victim assistance, based on six pillars: data collection, medical care, physical rehabilitation, psychosocial rehabilitation, economic rehabilitation and vocational training, and advocacy.
Work on building a strategic plan for victim assistance will be finished before the first meeting of States Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions is held on November 9-12 in Vientiane, according to Mr Bountao Chanthavongsa, an official from the NRA's victim assistance unit.
“The strategic plan has now been completed in English, and the victim assistance unit is currently translating it from English to Lao,” he told the Vientiane Times .
Once complete, it will help victims across the whole country. “When UXO accidents occur, the survivors go to hospital, and when they leave the hospital, they need monitoring and support,” he said.
“They will have physical, psychosocial and economic rehabilitation, and more,” he said.
More than 50,000 people were killed or injured by UXO between 1964 and 2007, and there are still around 300 victims a year, according to the NRA.
Mr Bounliep, a 45-year old farmer from Kaengluang village in Phalanxay district, Savannakhet province, narrowly escaped death as he dug a termite mound out of his rice field last year.
As he dug, he struck a device that exploded, leaving the man badly injured with deep flesh wounds caused by shrapnel. He was very lucky to have survived the explosion and to have kept all his limbs.
When people living nearby heard the explosion, they immediately rushed to the farmer's side and took him to the district hospital.
The injuries sustained by Mr Bounliep have left him severely disabled. He complains that he cannot help his family like he used to because of his feeble condition. “When I try to walk more than two or three steps at a time, I feel dizzy and fall to the ground,” he said sadly. “I have lost the sight in my right eye which means I can't work like I used to.”
Mr Norva Lee, 36, comes from a poor family in Borikhan district, Borikhamxay province. In 1992, when he was 18 years old, he lost one of his legs in a bomb explosion.
He was unable to help his family by hunting or working in shifting cultivation until 2005, when the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) in Vientiane gave him a prosthetic leg.
“COPE gave me a leg. It's a very good leg, and it's a chance to walk, but I have no job, no money, because I'm disabled,” he said.
The accident happened 18 years ago when he and his brother were hunting for animals and he stepped on an unexploded device. The bomb exploded on contact with his right foot.
“I didn't see this bomb while I was hunting because I was looking at some birds in the trees,” he says unhappily. “I was unconscious for two hours before my parents arrived.”
More than 17,000 hectares of agricultural and other land has been cleared by the National UXO Programme (UXO Lao) since it was established in 1996, benefitting communities in Luang Prabang, Huaphan, Xieng Khuang, Khammuan, Savannakhet, Saravan, Xekong, Champassak and Attapeu provinces.
Laos suffers the worst UXO contamination in the world. Between 1964 and 1973, more than 2 million tones of ordnance was dropped on Laos by American warplanes during the Indochina War, making the country the most heavily bombed per capita in history.
It is estimated that around 80 million of the 270 million cluster munitions packages dropped by US forces failed to explode, posing an ongoing threat to communities throughout the country.
Around 25 percent of Laos' villages were bombed, and UXO still contaminates a total surface area of 87,231 sq km.
By Khonesavanh Latsaphao
Vientiane Times, 2010
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