Cluster bombs and lost limbs

Laos is the most bombed place on Earth per capita. 40 years after the last drop, those bombs are still killing people and taking away limbs and livelihoods.

UXO= unexploded ordinance

Great swathes of land are still unusable and dangerous. 8 million bombs. Most still just sitting there, just under the surface; in rice fields, on paths, in jungles, in school yards, under houses, under kitchen fireplaces.

In about 1996 I went to the Plain of Jars over in the north east of Laos. This area had been bombed heavily. I read about it in the Lonely Planet. That was the first I had heard about it. I saw people with metal detectors looking for unexploded bombs in fields. I was told that most of the areas with paths around the jars were safe so I walked around confident and relaxed. I'm not so sure anymore.

Bombs

Thousands of people have died or been injured; lost limbs and eyes. Sometimes it's farmers ploughing, sometimes it's people collecting scrap metal to sell, sometimes it's kids playing in footy fields. It's years and people are still being blown to bits.

On Thursday I listened to a guy from the Mines Action Group (UK) www.maginternational.org and then visited COPE Visitor Centre.  www.copelaos.org. These organisations are wonderful. And they tell the scatter bomb story in a way you can't easily forget.

 

 

One child's bombing memories

Only 1% of the bombs have been cleared so far. I asked the MAG guy if he thought it would be cleared in his lifetime. He didn't hesitate. No.

Map of where the bombs were dropped

The Americans did it. Over 9 years during the Vietnam war, 580,000 bombing missions unloaded 8 million little killers onto Laos land. Some were planned drops; bombing the crap out of areas where communists might be. Many were just unloading so their planes didn't risk of landing with bombs on board. America hadn't declared war with Laos so there were no rules of war to limit what they did.

More bombs

Apart from the bombs that look like bombs always do in cartoons (see above), at COPE I saw the big bomb casings that spring apart mid-air to drop lots of little tennis-ball sized bombs that scatter across the countryside. I remember seeing these casings used as pig's troughs and veranda posts up north. Lao people are nothing if not versatile and inventive!

 

Installation in COPE Visitor Centre of cluster bombs scattering out of the bomb casing

 

So while European-based NGOs (with some funding from Australia, Japan, other Asian countries and yes, America) are training and employing locals to slowly, slowly clear some space so they can reclaim their land and feed their families, places like COPE are building new legs and arms and torso supports and re-enabling the injured and limbless.

She's got legs!

 

Spare parts

 

Making casts for prosthetics

We dropped into the prosthetics and orthotics clinic. I watched a young woman - a new patient - put on her brand new leg and practice walking. She walked up and down the waiting room, following the line of the tiles so the staff could check that she had control over her gait. It was fabulous. Her one rubber thong sat abandoned on the floor as she walked up and down, up and down. I felt like a touristy perve, standing in the doorway watching. Until she looked up and gave us a quick, wide, gorgeous smile before putting her head back down and concentrating on the job.  It brought a tear to the eye.

Cluster bombs are still being manufactured and sold - mainly in the US. In Australia we dragged our feet to join others in banning them. There was a GET UP campaign. It worked. We banned them from our shores and activities last year. Now we should be lobbying to have them eradicated completely.

 

sculpture made from recovered bomb metal

"100 million little bombs" by Buddy and Julie Miller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP0ZYmNZ2cM

Three dollar bomb a hundred thousand roads
Steps of a child and the ground explodes
You can't clear one before another re-loads
To ratchet up the ante again
They're cheap and they're simple
And they're green and black
They take you right down a one way track
We've gone so far now that we can't get back
And we still won't stop this train
Footfall of a soldier
Footfall of a child
They don't know the difference
They're blind and mean and wild
One hundred million and the wheels go round
Lunch in geneva and the deals go down
We'll still have to fight a century from now the battle of a long gone war
What do you do with what's left behind
What can you grow when the fields are mined
What do you do when that's all you find you've got when you get back home
They're only made for terror
They don't care who they harm
Three dollars each to make
And a thousand to disarm
One hundred million still in the ground
Lunch in Geneva and the deals go down
We'll still have to fight a century from now
The battle of a long gone war
What do you do with what's left behind
What can you grow when the fields are mined
What do you do when that's all you find you got when you get back home
From china to Angola and Cambodia where they lay
Chips from Motorola
Made in the USA