Laos still paying the price of Vietnam war
Imagine growing up in a country where the equivalent of a B52
planeload of cluster bombs was dropped every eight minutes for nine
years.
Then imagine seeing your children and grandchildren being killed and
maimed by the same bombs, three decades after the war is over.
Welcome to Laos, a country with the unwanted claim of being the most
bombed nation per capita in the world.
Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. military dropped more than 2 million
tons of explosive ordnance, including an estimated 260 million cluster
munitions - also known as bombie in Laos.
To put this into perspective, this is more bombs than fell on Europe
during World War Two.
The U.S. bombing was largely aimed at destroying enemy supply lines
during the Vietnam war that passed through Laos. The war ended 35 years
ago, yet the civilian casualties continue. According to aid agency
Handicap International, as many as 12,000 civilians have been killed or
maimed since, and there are hundreds of new casualties every year.
On December 3 this year, over 100 nations will sign an international
treaty to ban the use of cluster bombs to prevent further tragedies like
Ta's, a father of seven who lives in a remote village in Khammoune
Province in southern Laos.
One morning four years ago, he saw something that looked like a
bombie. He knew it was dangerous, but he had also heard that the
explosive inside could be used for catching fish, so he decided to touch
it with a stick.
That one small tap cost him both arms and an eye. Ta had to travel
nine hours to get medical help. He sold his livestock to pay hospital
bills, and when he ran out of things to sell, he went home.
Ta says he had to 'eat like a dog' for four years, before
non-governmental organisation COPE provided him with prosthetic arms.
Now he is able to help with small domestic chores.
Then there is 31-year-old Yee Lee. He was digging around in his
garden in August when suddenly his hoe came down hard on a bombie. He
lost both legs and two fingers.
For now, his elderly parents and younger brother help his family. "I
hope, with the prosthetic leg, to get back to work either in the field
or around the house."
Reuters
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