Day 254 - UXO Museum

Today we also decided to visit the UXO - Unexploded Ordinance Information Centre.

Here is some information I have quoted from <https://www.luangprabang-laos.com/Visit-UXO-Laos-center>

The UXO Laos Visitor Center is located behind the Chao Anouvong Monument. Open from Monday to Friday, 8am - 12am & 1pm to 4pm. This free admittance centre features information about unexploded ordnance. Lao PDR is the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in history.

Numbers talk:

• Approximately 25% of villages in Laos are contaminated with Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)
• More than 580,000 bombing missions were conducted over Laos
• Over 2 million tons of ordnance were dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973
• Cluster sub-munitions or ‘Bombies’ (as they are known locally) are the most common form of UXO remaining
• More than 270 million bombies were dropped onto Laos
• Up to 30% failed to detonate
• Approximately 80 million unexploded bombies remained in Laos after the war
• All 17 provinces of Laos suffer from UXO contamination
• 41 out of the 46 poorest districts in Laos have UXO contamination
• Over 50,000 people have been killed or injured as a result of UXO accidents in the period 1964-2008
• Over 20,000 people have been killed or injured as a result of UXO accidents in the post war period of 1974-2008
• UXO Lao works in the nine most heavily UXO contaminated provinces in the country.
• UXO Lao needs on an average, US$6.5 million, for operations. It employs over 1,000 people.

To say that this information was extremely disturbing would be an understatement. I have been watching a documentary series on Netflix called 'The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick" which is a really good way to learn all about the war. These statistics really put into perspective the massive toll that the war had in Laos. The documentary explains that in an attempt to disable the Ho Chi Minh trail, 3 million tonnes of explosives would be dropped on Laos alone. This is 1 million tonne more than what was dropped on Germany & Japan combined, in all of World War II.

For anyone who doesn't know much about the Vietnam War, the main conflict was between the North and the South of the country. Without going into all the many and convoluted reasons there was a devision (which I will address in blogs through Vietnam), the North of Vietnam had made a trail through Laos, which would come to be called the Ho Chi Minh trail. The purpose of this trail was to ferry troops and munitions through Laos, and into Southern Vietnam to supply the North's war effort in the South. Since America was not technically at war with Laos, they were not bound by the same rules of engagement as they were in Vietnam. In an effort to destroy this supply line the American's relentlessly bombed this route. 

One of the most shocking fact's of this campaign was the way that it was not acknowledged by American forces to it's citizens or the world for so many years. Despite claiming an estimated 1/10 of the population of Laos over the course of the war. This bombing campaign was never fully acknowledged nor was there any form of apology post war. There has been funding given to the UXO from America over the post war years. So I guess that's something!

Another very troubling by-product of the war and the remanent ordinance is the emergence of a black market trade in scrap metal from bombs. Despite the extreme risk involved in collecting war scrap metal, many impoverished Laotians turn to this practice as a source of income. Since the bombs are made of a high quality metal a kilogram can be worth 1,500 - 5,000 kip (US$0.17-US$58). Some of these bombs can weigh 317kg! This can earn up to 17,000,000 kip or US$200. In comparison, this is up to 2/3 of a rural farmer or teachers yearly earnings! Unfortunately with the influx of affordable metal detector's, which can cost as little as US$12, this has become a very common trade in Laos. 

There was also a great deal of information about the process of the removal of ordinance. It is an extremely costly and often slow moving process. Requiring the training of highly skilled technicians. UXO LAO is a government run, UN supported organisation. There goal is to reduce the death and injury caused by these munitions. They also strive to open up land to be used safely for agricultural purposes. Founded in 1996, the UXO LAO now has 700-1000 semi and permanent staff. Since the beginning of its operations they have made 12,000 hectares of land safe from ordinance, and conducted risk awareness educational talks for 1,700,000 people. In a typical year UXO LAO can remove and destroy 63,500 items. They also seek to have every country sign a treaty to ban the use of cluster munitions. Despite the treaty being created in December 2008, only 103 countries have signed. The United States in not one of them. [ref<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Cluster_Munitions>]

What is a cluster bomb? A cluster bomb is a type of ordinance that can be dropped from a plane, or shot from artillery or from a rocket. There is an outer shell that breaks open in mid air, which contains a large number of submunitions (bombies). The smaller munitions can carpet bomb an area of 2/3 soccer fields. A single submunition has a kill radius of 30 meters. However only 70% of the bombies actually explode on impact. Leaving a large number of ordinance un-exploded for many years, even decades after being deployed. These bombs can contain between 680 and 4,800 submunitions. The shape and colour of these bombies can often resemble a rubber ball which makes them alluring to children. Luckily UXO officers are engaging in a regional educational campaign. They regularly attend schools to educate children at a young age about the dangers of UXO. 

It is estimated that 300 people a year are injured by UXO. Many of these are children. It can often be extremely detrimental to a families ability to earn. If one person in the family is injured, they often can not work for a long time during their recovery. They can be plunged into debt with medical bills. When they return to work they may be missing a limb, which can seriously impede therir ability to be productive when farming etc. With conditions being extremely tough throughout the country, this can often mean a family is put into an impossible situation. One they may not ever fully recover from financially. 

The long lasting repercussions of this war are absolutely epic and sickening. We are amazed at how little people talk about the war in Vietnam and how marginalised the effects on Laos as a country have been in the history book's. We decided to buy a t-shirt from their souvenir stall, as well as make a small donation to the cause. Hopefully they will continue to receive international support from Australia and other countries until Laos is made safe for the coming generations. 

-Tom