Every 8 minutes -24 hours a day for 9 years long there are bombs falling out of the sky. The American planes drop their ordnance on Laos to stop the communism. Everything happens in secret without official permission. Many people die. Lot of civilians lose their homes, friends, family and even limbs. The war is finally over. Or maybe not? The Lao people are still living in fear for the unexploded bombs that are hidden under the ground and wait to explode.
The Lao people die every day because of the hidden UXO. US didn’t even clean 1% of the dangerous war ordnance. Under the victims there are many children. When they play outside – the chance is high that the kids can find some UXO in the ground. Many children think it’s a ball or fruit. Americans painted some bombs orange or yellow so the children will pick it up and bring it to their home where it can explode.
The UXO Survivor Centre helps the victims of the unexploded ordnance. They provide psychological therapy for the victims and their family. But also give financial support for the medical treatment. The organisation creates many job opportunities so the disabled victims can still work for their dreams. They provide knowledge about UXO, give animals so the people don’t need to farm the lands and teach how to make handicraft. The MAG organisation works also together with UXO Survivor Centre. MAG is in charge for cleaning the bombs. The US donates some money to the organisations. But according to the locals they don’t do enough to take the responsibility for their war crimes. Many lifes could be safed in the future if America would use their modern technology just to support Laos a little bit.
This painting is made by a child that knows what UXO is. People die during farming. Children play with the unexploded bombs and get hurt or even die. Eldery civilians are burning trash when some ordnance explodes. Even when you are a tourist you need to be careful where you walk.
Nowadays it’s very difficult for Laos to develop. That’s because of all the uncleared UXO. People are afraid for the ‘accidents’ and live every day in fear. Share this post so that everyone will know that the Secret War in Laos never really ended.
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