Do not be surprised. US, during the Vietnam War four decades ago, did 600 thousand bombing missions. If every mission dropped 10 bombs, then Laos bombarded six million bombs.
To be sure, the number of bombs were released in each mission certainly not ten or twenty, but can reach hundreds and involving many aircraft.
Be Laos country bombarded bomb nicknamed at most per capita in the world, because the number of bombs dropped far greater than all the bombs were released the US and the UK during World War II.
Approximately 30 percent of the bombs failed to explode, and become angels of death at any time seize the lives of Laotians.
The US began dropping bombs on Laos, after the North Vietnamese and Vietcong guerrillas using regions of Laos and Cambodia to infiltrate troops into South Vietnam. These intrusions were known as the Ho Chi Minh Trails.
In Cambodia, the US bombing is done openly. In Laos, the US did the Secret War but the number of bombing missions unusually large.
The US uses almost all owned bombs. Starting from the conventional, until new findings such as napalm and cluster bombs.
No one village in Laos are not 'miss' US bombs. No one else in the country villages that do not have a war victim.
Four decades after the Indochina War was over, not one village in Laos are not saving tens of unexploded bombs. As a result, almost every year - and has been for 40 years since the war - an average of one hundred residents Laos became victims of bombs that did not explode it.
If the dead are not terrible, they lose limbs and lifelong disability.
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Of all types of unexploded ordnance, commonly called UXO, the most dangerous are cluster bombs or cluster bomb. When removed from the aircraft, bombs in great shape. A few hundred meters before reaching the ground, turned into a bomb of a tennis ball, and burst consecutive create fire carpet, so often called carpet bombing.
Not all cluster munitions exploded, some twelve or maybe twenty, buried in the ground, lying around, embedded under mud, or nyemplung into rivers, ponds, and swamps.
"Ninety percent of our findings is the size of a tennis ball on cluster munitions," said Simon Rea, Country Director for Lao PDR, Mines Advisory Group. "The rest is land ammunition removed from the aircraft."
The Lao government said 87 thousand square kilometers of land area was contaminated with UXO, and only two percent - after four decades after the war - which could be cleaned.
"It may take centuries for us to clear Laos of all UXO," said Phoukhieo Chanthasomboune, director general of Laos' National Regulatory Authority for UXO / Mine Action Sector.
"We want the world to know and support us by providing training. We want to have a high standard of UXO training center to train residents Laos dealing with bombs, "he continued.
Until now, UXO have killed and injured more than 50 thousand inhabitants of Laos. People lost a leg can be found in almost all villages in Laos, and the making of false legs spread throughout the country.
Approximately 15 thousand victims need help to live, because they can not anything else other than wait for the mercy.
Phongsavath Souliyalath is one of UXO victims. He could not any more, after stepping on a bomb and lost both legs.
"There is no support from anyone for me," he said.
The US government increased aid of 9 million dollars to 32 million dollars, but it was not enough. According to the Lao government, which required not just aid money, but technical assistance to deal with this extraordinary situation. Residents must be trained to face this challenge.
source: shoutussalam.com