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Foreign Correspondent: July 15

Sally Sara is in Laos investigating 'bombies' left by the US during the Vietnam War.

2014-07-14_1806This week on Foreign Correspondent Sally Sara is in Laos investigating ‘bombies’ left by the US during the Vietnam War.

The locals call them ‘bombies’ – small bombs only about the size of a tennis ball. But these tiny munitions have left a deadly legacy in Laos. The United States dropped a staggering 260 million ‘bombies’ on Laos during the Vietnam War – the equivalent of a bombing mission every eight minutes for nine years. Many didn’t explode on impact, leaving Laos contaminated with millions of unexploded ordnance. Forty years after the end of the war, the ‘bombies’ are still taking lives and limbs – and many of the victims are children. Now a band of brave women is going where others fear to tread, to find and destroy the explosives that litter their precious land.

The women walk slowly through the undergrowth, scanning the ground with metal detectors – hunting for cluster bombs in the Lao province of Xieng Khouang.

The bomb clearing teams are doing a job that will take more than a lifetime to complete – to find and destroy up to 80 million unexploded munitions. Forty-six-year-old Phou Vong remembers the first time she found a ‘bombie’.

“I was excited as well as frightened. I hesitated a bit but I thought I should be glad to see it, because in a sense I was helping my people.” – PHOU VONG, de-miner, Mines Advisory Group

Even though it was American pilots that dropped the bombs, it is Lao civilians who are risking their lives to clean them up. The de-miners want the US to provide more help.

”If the funding is no longer there, oh, I am afraid that we won’t be able to clear them all, there are just so many of them.” – PHOU VONG, de-miner, Mines Advisory Group

More than four decades after the bombing ended, the danger continues. The unexploded ‘bombies’ contaminate forests and fields. They can detonate at anytime.

Children at Chomthong School in Xieng Khouang learn about ‘bombies’ before they can even read and write. They sing along to a tune that sounds like a nursery rhyme, but it’s a lesson that could save their lives.

“Be careful before you go out and play.
If you see a bombie do not touch it.
If you see a bombie do not touch it.”

Australian aid worker Colette McInerney is working with the victims of cluster bomb blasts. She says few people outside Laos know about the terror that so many civilians endured here during the war.

“It is extraordinary. I can’t imagine living in that. I can’t imagine living through that.” – COLETTE MCINERNEY, World Education Laos

Colette visits 33-year-old Tier Keomanyseng, who lost his hands and his sight when a cluster bomb blew up in the fields. The accident has devastated his family.

”I didn’t remember anything at all I didn’t feel anything.” – TIER KEOMANYSENG, cluster bomb victim

Up to 20,000 people have been killed or injured by cluster bombs in Laos since the bombing stopped. Many, like Tier, were born years after the conflict ended but they have to live with its devastating consequences.

“I just had to fight with brave heart. I just took it day by day.” – TIER KEOMANYSENG, cluster bomb victim

The people of Laos are trying to rebuild their country and their lives. It could take decades to clear the land of cluster bombs, but there is hope for a better future.

“What’s really remarkable about the people of Laos, and what gives me so much hope, is their own sense of optimism and endurance and spirit. And perseverance to be able to survive such devastating history and past and to overcome it with such an amazing sense of spirit, of good hearted spirit.” – CHANNAPHA KHAMVONGSA, Executive Director, ‘Legacies of War’

8pm on Tuesdays on ABC1.

One Response

  1. Thank you for this story. I will admit I knew about this because of a documentary the ABC played years ago. Including Australians involved in training people to look for and deal with these bombs. But it was good to see this update and furthering of the story. I think they have a wonderful attitude and hope one day their country will be cleared of these dangerous and deadly menace.

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