Four killed, three injured as UXO continues to haunt Laos

Four children were killed and two children and one woman were injured in Savannakhet province on Monday after a cluster bomb exploded while the children huddled around a fire to keep warm.

An injured boy receives treatment at a local hospital after a cluster bomb exploded in rural Savannakhet.

The tragic incident occurred in Tamluang village, Nong district, after the children started a fire in their backyard to warm themselves in the evening chill. The cluster bomb, or bombie, was identified as a Blu 26, a small but deadly explosive designed to maim and kill.

“The bomb was buried in the ground where the woman and six children were burning wood, so when it heated up it exploded, killing and injuring these poor children and the woman,” UXO Lao provincial coordinator Mr Soubinh Phasouking told Vientiane Times on Friday.

Three of the children died instantly from shrapnel wounds and another died later in hospital due to the extent of his injuries. The three survivors suffered serious burns to their legs, and risk infection. However, they were very lucky that the blast characteristics meant they suffered no upper body injuries.

Of the four children who died, three were boys – Sack aged 12, Chith aged 10, and Touk aged 10. A little girl named Ser, aged 3, was also killed.

Those who were injured in the explosion were named as Ms Khale, 28, and two boys, Mued aged 11 and Ya-ok aged 9.

This heartrending incident is part of the deadly legacy of the Indochina war, which will haunt Laos for generations to come, despite the best efforts of the many UXO clearance organisations working in the country.

Cluster munitions are barbaric weapons designed to kill or maim everyone in their path. During the war, injuries were considered to be as effective as fatalities, because they incapacitated more than one person by forcing others to look after them.

C onsequently, Laos is at the forefront of the campaign to have cluster munitions banned completely as weapons of war. Laos is a signatory to the International Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Oslo Convention. As the most bombed country on Earth, Laos hosted the First Meeting of States Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane in 2010.

The cluster bomb that exploded in Savannakhet on Monday was just one of the hundreds of millions of cluster sub-munitions that were dropped on Laos from 1964 to 1973, of which an estimated 30 percent did not detonate.

The government has been working systematically in conjunction with non-government and other organisations to clear UXO since 1996, but it is a monumental task. Currently, the government is considering the second National Strategic Plan for UXO clearance for 2011-2020, which aims to clear about 20,000 hectares of land per year.

By Khonesavanh Latsaphao
(Latest Update January 28, 2012)