Laos : The cursed metal - Tim Dirven

Laos is acknowledged as being one of countries most seriously affected by unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination, in the wake of the US army activities during the Vietnam War. It is estimated that at least 260 million cluster bombs were scattered throughout the country as a result of mass bombing involving 181, 000 planes over the period 1965-1973. It is hard to put a figure on the precise number of cluster bombs that failed to explode on impact: the estimates vary between 13 to 78 million. An UXO impact survey conducted by Handicap International in 1996 cites the figure of 87,000 km² of contaminated land: or 37% of the territory. 15 of the country’s18 provinces are affected. There are very few anti-personnel mines in Laos, as opposed to the much more common BLU-26 cluster bomblets. These types of bomblets account for 70.2% of the total. Tim Dirven travelled to Laos with  Handicap International.