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Lao Educational Opportunities Trust
It’s difficult to imagine what it would be like to live in Great Britain, knowing that three-quarters of the country was covered in unexploded bombs, with most of Wales being a high risk, Scotland a moderate risk and the majority of England a low risk. Laos unfortunately has the unenviable reputation of being the most heavily bombed country in history.
From 1964 until 1973, over half a million bombing missions were carried out over the country, and as a result, over two million tonnes of bombs were dropped. It is estimated that up to 30 percent of all ordnance dropped failed to detonate on impact, leaving a lethal legacy that continues to kill, maim and impoverish over 30 years later.
The Unwanted Legacy...
This explosive ordnance included vast quantities of cluster bombs which released sub-munitions, or bomblets (also referred to as "bombies" by the Laotian people). Such unexploded bomblets become, in effect, anti-personnel munitions. Bombing records provided by the U.S. government indicate that over 80 million of these bomblets were dropped all over the country.
In rural communities, high levels of poverty—and risk—are clearly linked to high levels of UXO contamination. Villagers living in such impoverished conditions often find that they are confronted with "enforced risk-taking." They either continue to live in acute poverty, and in many cases chronic malnutrition, or risk injury and death by working UXO-contaminated land.
At the current rate of progress it will take about 100 years to declare the country safe.
