UXO

UXO, or unexploded ordinance.
There is a UXO Museum in Luang Prabang, but you could be forgiven for not noticing it. Everywhere I asked I was told "No UXO museum in Luang Prabang. only in Phonsavan." But after several hours I found it, behind the statue of the president.

There are scary pictures of villagers using unexploded bombs to build their houses and of people wounded by UXO. Bombs are used as fences and barbecues. Bombie cases are made into lamp shades, candlestick holders, metal is smelted for knives, explosives are used for fishing and de-stumping.

UXO Lao is a national organisation. It trains and employs people to defuse and clear UXO and educates people about UXO safety. UXO Lao also provides technical advice and support for Lao PDR in its campaign for a global ban on cluster munitions.

Between 1964 and 1973 the US dropped an estimated two million tons of bombs in Laos, making it the most heavily bombed country in the world. Most of these bombs were cluster bombs, each one of which contains hundreds of 'bombies'. When the bomb breaks open, it releases bombies that cover an area the size of two to three football fields. As many as eighty million bombies failed to explode. In addition over four million big bombs, mortars, artillery shells, landmines and grenades still litter the country.

15 out of the 17 provinces in Laos have significant UXO contamination. At least twenty five percent of settlements report UXO.

The most heavily bombed area was the Ho Chi Minh trail. Hundreds of kilometres long, the Ho Chi Minh trail was a network of tracks from North Vietnam through east Lao to South Vietnam. The Americans bombed the Ho Chi Minh trail daily for nine years, but the north Vietnamese never stopped using it for even a day.The Americans also dropped defoliants, including Agent Orange. They tried spraying the whole area with liquid detergent to make it slippery. Chemicals continue to pollute food and water and children continue to be born deformed. Scarcely any research has been carried out to determine how bad this problem is.

Although banned, there is a roaring trade in UXO scrap metal. One person is killed or injured almost every day by UXO in Laos. Scrap collection is the most common cause of known UXO deaths (because of course a lot of the time people do not report the death, because the person was illegally collecting UXO scrap metal). In heavily contaminated areas many families have metal detectors, which are now cheap to buy. They are so poor that they are prepared to risk death in order to make money selling scrap metal (which of course often contains unexploded ordinance).

Lao is the most bombie-contaminated country in the world. And it has more post-conflict cluster bomb casualties than any other country in the world. BLU-26 were the most commonly used cluster bombs. 

In a typical year UXO Lao removes and destroys apoximately 65,500 UXO items. It is the largest of seven organisations all operating in Lao. There are clearance teams, survey teams, roving teams and community awareness teams. 700 of the 1,000 strong workforce are dedicated to clearance. These include deminers, international advisors, drivers, and medics.

Villages that need UXO removed apply to UXO Lao for clearance. Unfortunately the organisation doesn't have enough resources to deal with all the applications they receive, so they have to prioritise (places like school yards).

In 2008, 94 countries signed the cluster bomb treaty.

Which countries didn't sign the treaty?