A nationwide survey on victims of unexploded ordnance (UXO) conducted from January to September has revealed that 16 people died and 81 were injured this year, according to the National Regulatory Authority (NRA).
“We help UXO victims by paying hospital fees and providing wheelchairs and pr osthetic limbs,” NRA's Victim Assistance Unit Head Mr Bountao Chanthavongsa, said on Friday.
About 8,747 villages across the country are affected by UXO and, since 2008, more than 500 people have been killed or injured by explosions.
Mr Bountao said more than 50,000 people were killed or injured between 1964 and 2007 and UXO still claims about 300 victims a year.
Most of the bombs explode when farmers are clearing land, when villagers try to collect bombs so they can sell the scrap metal, or when children unwittingly play with UXO.
An official working at the rehabilitation centre in Savannakhet province, Mr Paeng Xayaphet, said there have been about 250 victims of past UXO accidents from Nong, Vilabouly, Xepon, Xayphouthong, Outhoumphone and Kaysone Phomvihane districts.
“We do not charge them for rehabilitation, education or accommodation and we pay for round-trip transportation between their house and the centre,” he said.
The rehabilitation centre is running a project to provide primary school education and vocational training for UXO victims.
Phase1 of the project began in 2006 and phase 2 runs from May 2010 to November 2011. Project funding, provided by Handicap International Belgium, amounts to more than 3.2 billion kip (about US$402,000).
Mr Paeng said the centre only has a primary school but on completion students can attend the Sikeud Vocational School or the Lao-Korea Vocational School in Vientiane.
“They can choose whether or not to continue their education in Vientiane. We don't send them there if they don't want to go,” he added.
It is mostly people with leg injuries that choose to go to vocational schools because it is easier for them to learn a skill if they still have the use of their hands, he explained .
Other accident victims prefer to run a small business in their village such as a shop. In these cases the project offers them a one-year, interest free loan of 1 million kip, which gives the recipient time to get established before having to pay back the loan, Mr Paeng said.
Some victims find work in the province as cleaners, maids, weavers or in television repair after finishing primary school.
Laos is the most heavily bombed country per capita in history, with up to 25 percent of its villages contaminated with UXO.
From 1964 to 1973, over 2 million tonnes of ordnance were dropped on Laos by enemy aircraft. With around 30 percent of munitions failing to explode on impact, about 80 million devices are still thought to remain.
(Latest Update October 17 , 2011)
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