Laos: The World’s Most Bombed Country | Oxfam Australia Laos: the world’s most bombed country Laos: the world’s most bombed country Rights in crisis article written on the 18 Nov 2010 By Anna MacDonald Oxfam International, Head of Control Arms Campaign Laskamy – age 17 – lost his right eye, right hand, and 3 fingers when he unknowingly picked up a live cluster munition. Its not every day you get on a small plane with a Princess and several Government Ministers. But early yesterday morning I found myself doing just that. I boarded a small plane at Lao’s Vientiane airport, with Princess Astrid of Belgium, Ministers from New Zealand, Luxembourg, Norway and Zambia, and fellow Cluster Munition Coalition campaigners. The 30 minute flight took us to Xieng Khuang province, in the north of the country, for a VIP field trip to see the reality of cluster munitions in the world’s most bombed country. We are all here for the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions – which basically means the first annual meeting since the cluster bomb treaty was agreed.

It’s a very relevant location, as more than 2 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos during America’s “secret war” between 1964 and 1973. At least 30% failed to detonate, and decades later, up to 80 million cluster bomblets lie undetonated across the country. Stepping off the plane at Xieng Khuang province we were in a very rural area. Fields with water buffalos and rice paddies abound, and the hilly countryside is criss-crossed with farmer’s fields and small traditional wooden houses. It’s a gentle, peaceful setting that belies the deadly war-time legacy which is all around – 100% of villages here have UXO (unexploded ordenance) in their fields and surroundings. The clearance operations are well organised, professional and painstakingly slow. We visited Ban Tontai village, where the day before, the well-organised men and women in the clearance teams from UXO Lao had swept their metal detectors across the field, gently digging down each time they had a beep, like an archaeologist might excavate a valuable historic site.

Except that instead of an ancient artefact, clearance operatives risk their lives uncovering deadly bomblets or “bombies”. We walked around a field where the ground was literally littered with small holes and flags, marking the dangerous bomblets buried inches beneath the surface. There must have been 50 munitions scattered across a field the size of a basketball court. A detonator is placed next to each munition as they are too dangerous to move. BLU 24 is one of the most common cluster bomblets in Laos, and there were at least 20 of these amongst mortars, shells and other unexploded ordnance in the field. At a safe distance the clearance team manager did the safety checks – she radioed allocated “sentries” around the village, to make sure no villager was anywhere near. Then Princess Astrid of Belgium and the Ministers from New Zealand and Luxembourg had the dubious honorary task of detonating the explosions. Even when you’re expecting it, the “boom” is a shock, like a massive firework going off withplumes of black smoke curling up in the sky. In Laos there are lots and lots of cluster bomb survivors.

Many organisations including Oxfam run training in safe agricultural practices (like how to dig gently in a way that won’t trigger a bomblet if a spade hits it), and there are awareness raising programmes in villages, especially to train children of the dangers, so they understand not to pick up the strange metallic tennis-ball sized objects they might find when playing. But its going to take many decades to rid Laos of its deadly war-time legacy. The Convention on Cluster Munitions is a fantastic achievement, you can feel the pride in our Lao colleagues almost bursting out of them – this international conference is a massive deal for a highly impoverished and often very marginalised country to run. And run it well they have. An outcome document which set out an ambitious vision for implementing the Treaty, and increasing the number of signatories is a notable achievement. Its celebratory, but the reality of life in Laos was starkly reminded to us this morning, when the Lao Conference President reported a further tragic story of child casualties. Yesterday a 10-year-old girl died after the cluster bomb she picked up near her village in Bolikhamxay Province exploded. Her 15-year-old sister is still in hospital with some serious injuries.

This is why the Convention on Cluster Munitions is so important. 108 countries have signed it, now every other country must do the same. Go to stoplclustermunitions.org to find out if your country has ratified the convention, and to join the campaign. Watch the Convention on Cluster Munitions Photo Gallery > Secret War in Laos | Legacies of War Secret War in Laos Twitter Secret War in Laos Laos, 1983. An intensive bombing campaign, coupled with artillery battles on land, has left the landscape in some areas of Laos filled with craters. Photo: Titus Peachey From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped more than two million tons of ordnance on Laos during 580,000 bombing missions—equal to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years – making Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. The bombings were part of the U.S. Secret War in Laos to support the Royal Lao Government against the Pathet Lao and to interdict traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The bombings destroyed many villages and displaced hundreds of thousands of Lao civilians during the nine-year period. Up to a third of the bombs dropped did not explode, leaving Laos contaminated with vast quantities of unexploded ordnance (UXO). Over 20,000 people have been killed or injured by UXO in Laos since the bombing ceased. The wounds of war are not only felt in Laos. When the Americans withdrew from Laos in 1973, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the country, and many of them ultimately resettled in the United States. Regions in Laos that were bombed are highlighted in red and yellow. Here are some other startling facts about the U.S. bombing of Laos and its tragic aftermath: Over 270 million cluster bombs were dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War (210 million more bombs than were dropped on Iraq in 1991, 1998 and 2006 combined); up to 80 million did not detonate. Nearly 40 years on, less than 1% of these munitions have been destroyed.More than half of all confirmed cluster munitions casualties in the world have occurred in Laos.

Each year there are now just under 50 new casualties in Laos, down from 310 in 2008. Close to 60% of the accidents result in death, and 40% of the victims are children. Between 1993 and 2016, the U.S. contributed on average $4.9M per year for UXO clearance in Laos; the U.S. spent $13.3M per day (in 2013 dollars) for nine years bombing Laos. In just ten days of bombing Laos, the U.S. spent $130M (in 2013 dollars), or more than it has spent in clean up over the past 24 years ($118M).

WORLD’S MOST CLUSTER-BOMBED COUNTRY LEADS REG | Media | CMC WORLD’S MOST CLUSTER-BOMBED COUNTRY LEADS REG 20 October 2008 WORLD’S MOST CLUSTER-BOMBED COUNTRY LEADS REGION IN FINAL STEPS TO WEAPON BAN South East Asian talks open in Lao PDR(Lao PDR, October 20th) South East Asian governments met today in Lao PDR, the most cluster bombed country in the world, to discuss how the new treaty to ban cluster bombs will make a difference on the ground and to rally support for the treaty signing in Oslo on 3 December. “We strongly congratulate the Lao government for the leadership it is showing on this international issue”, says Thomas Nash, Coordinator of the CMC. “Lao helped ensure that assistance to victims was at the heart of the treaty when it was negotiated in Dublin in May.

This will make a real difference to the thousands of people whose lives have been blighted by cluster bombs”.An estimated 383 million cluster bomblets have been scattered across South East Asia, according to an analysis by Handicap International, with 260 million of these being dropped on Lao PDR between 1964 and 1973. Hundreds of thousands failed to explode on impact, but continue to cause injury and death to innocent people decades after the bombing. “I lost both my arms and my eye after finding a cluster bomb whilst looking for food”, says Ta, a cluster bomb victim from Laos.

“Now I can’t provide for my family and my nine year old son has had to drop out of school”.In May, after a 15 month diplomatic effort led by Norway and known as the “Oslo Process”, 107 countries adopted a comprehensive new international treaty banning cluster bombs and setting strict standards to assist and promote the rights of affected individuals and communities.The Convention on Cluster Munitions, to be signed by over 100 governments in Oslo, on December 3rd, not only bans the use, transfer, production and stockpiling of cluster bombs, but also contains the strongest ever provisions in international law for clearance of contaminated land and victim assistance. If signed by cluster bomb affected Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam, aid for victim assistance and cluster bomb clearance in these countries should be considerably boosted."Since 1996, only about 364,000 sub-munitions have been cleared in Laos by UXO LAO . Yet thousands of people have and continue to be maimed or killed by weapons dropped decades ago", says Edwin Faigmane from UXO-Lao. "There are currently not enough resources to clear this contamination.

The cluster bomb treaty is the only way we can rid Laos of this deadly legacy."A total of six states from South East Asia agreed to adopt the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin on 30 May 2008: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia and Philippines, as well as Australia, Japan and New Zealand. Thailand, a stockpiler of cluster bombs and Singapore, a producer, did not adopt the Convention in May, but campaigners believe Thailand’s presence at the Laos Conference is a welcome signal for the future.The Laos Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions will run until October 22nd. It will be attended by around twenty governments.

Cluster Munition Coalition campaigners from Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will also attend, as well as victims from the region and experts from Handicap International, Human Rights Watch and other NGOs.For more information please contact: (In Laos) English speaker, Natalie Curtis: Laos no: +856 (0)202 598 547: International no: +44(0)7515 575 174(In Laos) English/ French speaker, Thomas Nash: Laos no: +856 (0)20254 7204 (In Laos) Thai speaker, Susan Walker, International Campaign to ban landmines: Laos no: +856 (0)202 547 2054. Media not already registered for the conference must register through the UNDP here: to Editors:The problem of cluster bombs in South East Asia:According to UXO-Lao, since 1996 only 364,000 sub-munitions have been cleared in Laos by UXO-Lao.

According to Handicap International, some 4,837 people are reported to have been killed or injured by cluster munitions, many decades after the bombing ended. Many others have been killed or injured without being recorded. Between 1964-1973, the US military dropped more than 2.4 million tons of bombs on Laos, including around 270 million cluster bomblets. Overall this was more tonnage than was dropped on Germany and Japan combined during the Second World War.

According to Handicap International:• At least 26 million submunitions were delivered in Cambodia by some 80,000 cluster munitions between 1969 and 1973;• At least 260 million submunitions were delivered in Laos by over 414,000 cluster bombs between 1965 and 1973;• Nearly 97 million submunitions were dropped in Vietnam by over 296,000 cluster munitions between 1965 and 1975.In the Asian region, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand stockpile cluster munitions that are prohibited and will need to be destroyed if they join the Convention.What are cluster bombs?Cluster munitions are large weapons which are deployed from the air and from the ground and release up to hundreds of smaller submunitions.

Submunitions released by airdropped cluster bombs are most often called “bomblets,” while those delivered from the ground by artillery or rockets are usually referred to as “grenades.”What’s the problem with this weapon?Air-dropped or ground-launched, they cause two major humanitarian problems and risks to civilians. First, their widespread dispersal means they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians so the humanitarian impact can be extreme, especially when the weapon is used in or near populated areas. Many submunitions fail to detonate on impact and become de facto antipersonnel mines killing and maiming people long after the conflict has ended. These duds are more lethal than antipersonnel mines; incidents involving submunition duds are much more likely to cause death than injury.Who has used cluster munitions?At least 15 countries have used cluster munitions: Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Israel, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia (USSR), Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, UK, US, and FR Yugoslavia. A small number of non-state armed groups have used the weapon (such as Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006).

Billions of submunitions are stockpiled by some 76 countries. A total of 34 states are known to have produced over 210 different types cluster munitions. More than two dozen countries have been affected by the use of cluster munitions including Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Croatia, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Uganda, and Vietnam, as well as Chechnya, Falkland/Malvinas, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Western Sahara.Why is a ban on cluster munitions necessary?Simply put, cluster munitions kill and injure too many civilians. The weapon caused more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system. Cluster munitions stand out as the weapon that poses the gravest dangers to civilians since antipersonnel mines, which were banned in 1997. Yet there is currently no provision in international law to specifically address problems caused by cluster munitions.

Israel’s massive use of the weapon in Lebanon in August 2006 resulted in more than 200 civilian casualties in the year following the ceasefire and served as the catalyst that has propelled governments to attempt to secure a legally-binding international instrument tackling cluster munitions in 2008.What is the Oslo Process?In February 2007, 46 governments met in Oslo to endorse a call by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to conclude a new legally binding instrument in 2008 that prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians and provide adequate resources to assist survivors and clear contaminated areas. Subsequent International Oslo Process meetings were held in Peru (May 2007), Austria (December 2007), and New Zealand (February 2008).

107 countries negotiated and adopted a treaty that bans cluster bombs and provides assistance to affected communities in May 2008 in Dublin.States that adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions (107)Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia (FYR), Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea

, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Uganda, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela and Zambia.Read the press release here:south-east-asian-talks-open-in-lao-pdr.pdf Laos Map / Geography of Laos / Map of Laos - Worldatlas.com Print this map Rich in Buddhist traditions and beliefs, this ancient landlocked land of Laos has been inhabited since the early centuries BC.

One of its most famous pre-history archeological sites, the "Plain of Jars" is located on the Xieng Khouang plateau. It wasn't until the 13th century that more structured settlements popped up, and it was the Tai people who established the first states, bringing together many tribal communities. The Lan Xang kingdom was founded in the 14th century, and flourished under its ruling founder Fa Ngum. Fa Ngum's oldest son, Oun Heuan (Samsenthai), ascended the throne following his father's death, and Lan Xang was transformed into an important trade center. After its collapse, Laos was ruled by numerous kings, and ultimately overrun by Burmese armies between 1763 and 1769. Nearly a century later, Laos became part of French Indochina, a federation of French colonies and protectorates in Southeast Asia . Following a Japanese occupation during World War II, Laos declared themselves independent; however, French troops reinstated control, giving Laos limited autonomy. True independence came in 1953, and in a somewhat typical manner of a new nation, civil war and internal conflict followed - lasting nearly twenty years.

Thrust onto the world stage during the Vietnam War, Laos suffered through heavy bombings and the subsequent loss of people and infrastructure. For nearly a decade (between 1964 and 1973) Laos endured bombings every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, carried out by the United States - making it the most heavily bombed country (per capita) in the world. Laos emerged from that conflict as one of the poorest countries on the planet, as most of its citizens were lacking in education and useful training. Over the last few decades some levels of economic and governmental progress have occurred. Underneath it all, Laos has great natural resources, including tremendous potential in the mining and timber industries. The lifeline of the country, the Mekong River, is its major corridor of transportation for goods and services, and the source of its electric energy. Looking into the future, with much-needed development in tourism policies and facilities, and overall improvement in manufacturing and technology, Laos may finally emerge as an important force in the Southeast Asia . See Also Air War - Lect. #11: The Most Bombed Country in World History Asymmetric Air War Air War - Lect. #11: The Most Bombed Country in World...

SCHOOL View Full Document This is the end of the preview. Sign up to access the rest of the document. Unformatted text preview: Lect. #11: The Most Bombed Country in World History Asymmetric warfarewhen there is disparity in power and/or tactics between two sides Only US/South VN military have offensive air power (MIGs in North used for air defense) U.S drops 4x more bombs on SOUTH VIETNAM than on North (on land of allies) South Vietnam: most heavily bombed country in world history U.S. bombing fails to break will of enemy How Can Weaker Power Win? Greater commitment to cause If stronger power is foreign and lacks local popular support Willingness to suffer higher costs Tactical skill and knowledge of terrain Goals of U.S. Air War Crush will and capacity of enemy to fight: Failed Block troops coming from North VN: Failed Kill enemy troops in South: but more civilians killed than combatants Bolster morale of Saigon govt: just makes GVN more dependent on U.S Tons of Bombs Dropped by U.S.

World War II: 2.2 million tons Korean War: 500,000 tons Vietnam War: 8 million tons On South Vietnam: 4 million On North Vietnam: 1 million On Laos: 2 million On Cambodia: 1 million 400-500 lbs. per person in Vietnam Types of Bombs Cluster Bombs (antipersonnel bombs designed to do more damage to people than structures)spray thousands of razor sharp fleshettes Conventional bombs2501000 lbs. But Daisy Cutter was 15,000 lbs. Napalmfire bomb B-52 Stratofortress B-52s Used primarily on South Vietnam (1965-1972 and Cambodia (1969-1973) Used against North in 1972 Each plane carried 30 tons of bombs Carpet bombing: Each 3-plane mission... Lect #9: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident Key Points 1964: President LBJ faces election Gulf of Tonkin Resolution National Geographic Magazine - NGM.com Published: August 2015 Laos Finds New Life After the Bombs The U.S.

dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos from 1964 to 1973 during the Vietnam War. That’s equal to a planeload every 8 minutes for 9 years. How does a country recover? By T. D. Allman Photographs by Stephen Wilkes For days up there on the Plain of Jars I’d been trying to capture an image, find a metaphor, crystallize an idea that could convey what it means for Laos to have been one of the most heavily bombed nations in history and then to have gone on and somehow found a future. Finally, right there on a busy main street of Phonsavan, the provincial capital, I found it: a giant pile of bomb casings left over from the American bombing campaign in Laos , a stupendous and futile torrent of airborne destruction. And just beyond the junk heap of weaponry, a new ATM machine. Bright blue and gleaming white, this beckoning pagoda of money dwarfed the rusting debris of a half-forgotten war. After inspecting the bomb casings, I walked over to the ATM, stuck in my debit card, and pulled out one million kip, about $120.

All those 50,000-kip notes spewing out of the machine told a new story about Laos, where an age of bombs has given way to an age of money. Once, here in Xiangkhouang Province, children grew up barely seeing the sun. People spent years hiding in caves and tunnels. Now Phonsavan is so busy it has traffic lights with digital displays showing how many seconds pedestrians have to cross the street—not that you need cross the street to find a bank, a restaurant, a market full of fresh fruit and vegetables, a shop selling running shoes. Along with the fabled megalithic urns on the Plain of Jars , whose purpose still mystifies archaeologists, the debris of the American air war that lasted from 1964 to 1973 has become part of a public relations campaign to attract tourists: That heap of bomb casings is displayed in front of the local tourism office. Only a few places on the Plain of Jars have been cleared of unexploded ordnance and are safe for visitors. Some archaeologists suggest that the giant 2,000-year-old jars held burial remains.

With its undulating hills and grassy flatlands, the Plain of Jars in some places resembles a giant golf course. The sand traps here were made by falling bombs, millions of which exploded. Millions more did not, creating a permanent danger, especially to those entrepreneurial Laotians who make money salvaging valuable metal from unexploded bombs. “Welcome to Mr. Phet Napia Making the Spoon and Bracelet,” announces the ad on Phet Napia’s house in the village of Ban Naphia. In his backyard foundry Phet melts aluminum from ammunition shells and locally collected metals. He then pours it into a mold to create bomb-shaped key rings as well as eating utensils. Local restaurants all seem to have forks, spoons, and chopsticks made of war-era scrap metal. The fruits of Phet’s industry are on show: a new house, a satellite TV, electric lights. Like many Laotians, Phet is an artisan with a flair for entrepreneurship, but he’s still trying to get his mind around the idea that in a market economy the costs don’t stop when you pay for something.

“You get 60 channels on it,” he said as we admired his satellite dish, “but you must pay for the electricity.” His mobile phone helps attract new business, “but even after you purchase it, you must pay to talk into it also.” A Picture of Vibrancy Laos, with a population of fewer than seven million, now has almost five million mobile phones. At Ban Pak-Ou , a northern village on the Mekong River, fishermen stand motionless in their pirogues silhouetted in the amber light, the water around them glimmering like burnished bronze. It’s like peering back through the centuries, except that each man is chatting into his cell phone as he fishes. Ornate mansions are already springing up elsewhere in the capital. One put up by a developer and construction company owner stares down a shop selling Buddhist funerary stupas. Vientiane, the capital, once was a scruffy town. Now it’s a scruffy city with 12-story buildings. Once silence prevailed, punctuated by the sounds of falling rain, babies crying, people laughing, monks chanting.

Today everything happens in a soupy buzz of air conditioners clattering, generators buzzing, motorbikes whining, horns blaring. The country’s economy is growing by nearly 8 percent a year. The flag of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, with its Soviet-style hammer and sickle, still flies alongside the national flag, but the government’s leaders, whose role was once to enable the Vietnamese to pursue their Marxist-Leninist war of national unification, now play a different part: as enablers in the creation of a Southeast Asian free-market zone . Laos aims to graduate from the ranks of the least developed countries on the UN’s list by 2020. In Laos the rich are getting richer, and even in the remotest areas, among the humblest people, I encountered an access to possibilities of the outside world previously unimaginable. Near the Vietnamese border in central Laos, I saw a young man heading home on his motorbike with a satellite dish cupped under his arm. In mountain villages I saw flocks of schoolchildren in their white-and-blue uniforms.

I also saw refurbished places of worship wherever I went—Buddhist temples, to be sure, but also many animist shrines and a few Christian churches. You still see monks in their saffron robes everywhere, only now they carry computer bags. The Mekong still flows past Vientiane broad as history, but the riverfront has been transformed. Once a series of mud banks and sandpits, it’s now an inviting esplanade almost two miles long, complete with exercise machines and jogging paths—and parking spaces for all those family sedans and SUVs. Every evening brings a throng: the lovers, the jugglers, the laughing children, the break-dancers. Musicians perform, and exercise gurus offer classes, as the immense disk of the setting tropical sun turns itself into a blurry horizontal streak, and the hubbub is illuminated by the neon tubes on the vendors’ pushcarts and the shifting beams of motorcycle headlamps. Aerobics at sunset take center stage in Vientiane’s new riverfront park. The modest skyline will likely grow up and out as Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and other neighbors invest in Laos’s economy.

Like most things in Laos, this riverside park in Vientiane tells a deeper story. A triumph of humanist city planning—which has refocused life on the river, the open space, and the sky—the esplanade is actually a massive levee protecting the city from flooding. Who built it is also revealing: It was funded largely by a loan from South Korea. The countries of Asia now provide more useful assistance than the Occidental powers ever did. During all the time France and the United States predominated in Laos, neither country built a bridge across the Mekong. Today six great bridges span the river. One is at Thakhek, where the transit distance across Laos between the growing economies of Thailand and Vietnam is shortest, only 90 miles. In Thakhek I could see Thailand through my hotel room window while watching Vietnam Idol on TV. One morning in Vientiane I found a motorcycle club had filled the lobby of my hotel. “We’re on a joyride from Malaysia,” one biker politely explained—a 2,600-mile round trip. Another morning, this time in Louangphabang , I awoke to find the street outside crammed with newly arrived cars. Every one had a Chinese license plate.

While those affluent bikers from Kuala Lumpur were heading north, affluent Chinese from Kunming were heading south, taking a Laotian vacation too. Just as the domino theory had predicted, Laos was being invaded, though by Peugeots and Harleys, not communist tanks and armored personnel carriers. This new era of peaceful interconnectedness has a human face everywhere you go. Its contours are also visible from the air. Flying over the Mekong from Savannakhet, you see another of those bridges conveying people and products into and out of Laos. Just upstream from it you also see skyscraper-high pylons carrying the electricity Laos exports across the river. Once when I flew out of Louangphabang, bomb craters caught my eye. Now there are other gouges—sand traps at the new golf course South Koreans have built. A City’s Rebirth Decades ago when I stood on the riverbank in Vientiane, I pondered a question I knew I’d never be able to answer. How could seemingly rational people—Americans like me—imagine they could win the war in Vietnam by subjecting Laos to such indiscriminate destruction? When I wrote that a secret war was being fought in Laos, it made headlines around the world.

In truth the U.S. military intervention in Laos, which began in the 1950s and lasted until 1974, never had been secret. All you had to do was ask any Laotian what was happening in the country. Every lady selling lotus blossoms in the morning market, every rickshaw boy offering you every imaginable enticement, knew all about not just the Ho Chi Minh Trail but the secret CIA army and the secret U.S. bombing of civilian populations. They also knew about the secret U.S. involvement in the opium trade. In 1968, the year of the Tet Offensive in neighboring Vietnam, I took a group taxi from the Mekong lowlands to the Bolovens Plateau. When the driver refused to go farther, I walked on. U.S. fighter bombers screeched overhead. On the horizon, along the tree line, I saw scurrying figures in camouflage. It was the only time during the war that I actually saw North Vietnamese troops—or U.S. warplanes dropping bombs. I was 23, yearning to uncover the truth.

At Pakxong, a former French outpost for coffee growers, I wandered into an abandoned bar that could have been lifted from a Foreign Legion movie. A mural showed French planters taking their ease in the company of comely Laotian women. It was dark, and the only sign of life came from a small house next to the old French church. Inside the house I met a one-legged French priest drinking whiskey, his wooden leg propped up against a table. He filled a glass for me. He was reading a French translation of The Green Berets, a fictional tale of American derring-do in the jungle. “Is this what the Vietnam War is like?” he asked. For decades I’d wanted to see Pakxong again. I knew the priest would no longer be there, but I hadn’t expected that old Pakxong would be gone too. Following my 1968 foray, B-52s had carpet bombed it twice. Only the charred corner of one building remained. In its ruins I could make out faint initials: EDL. It had been the local office of the Laotian electric company. Bomb casings serve as stilts for a chicken coop in Xiangkhouang Province.

They’re also valued as scrap metal, but their pursuit can be risky. In 2012 live ordnance killed 15 Laotians and injured 41. Pakxong had been obliterated, so why did returning there fill me with a kind of joy? It was the people—seemingly so peppy and happy—busily making a better life. Like Laos itself, Pakxong had been transformed from a battlefield into a marketplace. Where the French cantonment had been was now a sprawling market—chaotic, muddy, littered with plastic and organic refuse, but displaying anything you could want to sell or buy. What fascinated me most was the iron buffalo. Imagine you’re a Laotian peasant entrepreneur and you want everything you’ve seen on TV, but all you can afford is one thing. The iron buffalo is for you. Unlike a water buffalo, the iron buffalo can pump water as well as pull a plow, and it can light your house. It’s basically a multipurpose, portable internal combustion engine you can use to power almost anything. Connect it to your pump: You can grow dry-season crops. Connect it to your plow: You can quadruple the land you cultivate.

Connect your iron buffalo to your cart, and a two-day walk to and from the nearest big market center becomes a morning’s expedition. That’s how I met Lan Keopanya. He had bolted a Volvo steering wheel to his iron buffalo, which he’d attached to his rubber-tired cart. He was cranking up his homemade pickup truck when we started talking. His village, he said, was 12 miles from the Pakxong market. “The journey costs four liters of diesel, but it’s worth it.” By getting there so much faster and more often, he could sell the coffee, fruit, and vegetables he grew at the best price. That day Lan was there buying plastic roofing for his new house. All his six children were or would be going to school, he told me proudly. A new road already reached his village. “We expect electricity within two years,” he said, as he began moving, hurrying to get that roofing up before the rains began. In parting, I asked what he wanted next. “We need our land to be cleared of bombs,” he said. “If it weren’t for the bombs, I could multiply my production.” During the bombing the mountain minorities of Laos suffered horribly.

In the end it no longer mattered what side you took. The bombs didn’t distinguish between communists and anticommunists any more than they distinguished between soldiers and children. As the bombing accelerated, women used their expertise in embroidery and quilting to depict the catastrophe that fell out of the sky on them . With their images of bleeding children, burning crops, and terrified animals, their wall-size works of art are Laotian equivalents of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica.” Keay Tcha, who told me she was 58, has lived for more than 17 years in Ban Na Oune, a Hmong refugee resettlement located near Louangphabang. She unfurled one of her peacetime masterpieces for me. It depicted an unlost paradise where sparkling waters ran, luxuriant plants flourished, and a Noah’s ark of exotic animals cavorted under a benign, multihued sun. In her hands a scrap of polka-dot cotton became a giraffe. A blue rag became a flowing stream. When I asked to see more, she told me she no longer worked on that scale. “The tourists don’t want big tapestries,” she said.

“They want inexpensive embroidery they can take home in their hand baggage. So now I make many small things I can sell for a lower price.” She passed no value judgment on this latest transformation. She was surviving the peace as she’d survived the war, by recognizing what was necessary and doing it. A New Drug Problem One thing never changes in Laos: the heat of the journey. My quest for a cold drink brought me to Khenchan Khamsao’s convenience shop, on the north-south road to Louangphabang. A glass-doored, refrigerated drink dispenser beckoned, but it was her forest green trash container that got us talking. With its shapely pedestal (to keep away vermin), capacious bin, and secure lid, Khenchan’s trash container was graceful as well as utilitarian. “They make them from worn-out truck tires,” she explained. Like Phet Napia’s spoons and bracelets, the bin was an example of the Laotian genius for turning castoffs into useful objects. Her own life had been fashioned out of wreckage.

She had come from a devastated section of Khammouan Province in central Laos, where many places remain so littered with unexploded ordnance (UXO) that it’s impossible to farm there. Because their land was unusable, she and her husband migrated to this wide spot in the road; 12 years later they epitomized the Laotian success story. Their shop occupied the ground floor of their new house. Her husband earned money as a construction worker on an irrigation project at Vangviang, 65 miles to the north. Their three children were studying in government schools—the young ones locally, the eldest in Vientiane. Khenchan and her family had lived the bombs, and now they were living the money. Money, they’d discovered, brought danger too. When I remarked that in the capital her son would get a better education, she replied, “No, that wasn’t why we sent him away. I sent him to Vientiane to get him away from the drug dealers.” A war on drugs started in 1989 with U.S. funding to eradicate opium.

In 2006 Laos declared itself opium free, but as the economy boomed, an appetite for methamphetamines and other designer drugs took hold. The country is a major regional transit center for methamphetamines, heroin, and opium, which is again on the rise. As in America, rural areas have been especially hard hit. Haunted by Falling Bombs In Laos when the temperature goes below about 70 degrees, people start pulling on their coats and hats and lighting fires, which ignites the season of death. One New Year’s Eve three friends in Xiangkhouang Province went camping. It got cold that night, so they started a fire. One was killed right away when the bomb under their campsite exploded. Another was terribly maimed. I visited Yer Herr, the third victim, at his village home. The 18-year-old pulled off his shirt to show me 19 wounds on his back. In Yer’s village people had electricity, satellite TV, mobile phones. Each mother, wife, sister, and child, it seemed, also had a husband, a brother, or a little girl who had been maimed or killed by American bombs long after the end of the war.

At the local high school, algebra was being taught on a blackboard. I couldn’t decipher the equations: Laotian teenagers in this remote village were learning mathematics more advanced than I’d been taught at their age in America. Back home, I showed a photo of that blackboard to a mathematician. “It analyzes the velocity of falling objects, like bombs,” he told me. Nearly everyone has a smartphone in Laos, where a third of the people are younger than 15. Laotian ingenuity and drive have put the country on track to be off the UN’s list of least developed countries by 2020. Falling bombs still show up in dreams as well. “I live it inside me,” a world-renowned embroidery artist named Tiao Nithakhong Somsanith explained as I admired his use of gold thread to embroider Laotian silk with images of bombers. Tiao Nithakhong is helping revive the traditional arts in his country: classical dance, flower arrangement, costume design, orchestral music, and all kinds of weaving. Examining his exquisite work in a Louangphabang art gallery, I saw what I’d also seen in villagers’ handicrafts.

Whether the material is bamboo or plastic, silk or synthetic fiber, weaving is the art at which the Laotian people most excel. Masters at turning every kind of material into something useful and beautiful, they weave palm fronds into baskets, bamboo into fish weirs. They weave silk and gold thread into beautiful women’s skirts called sin. On a bookshelf in my apartment in New York City, I keep a soccer ball woven from rattan, so perfect Buckminster Fuller might have invented it. I call it a soccer ball, but it’s the kind of ball in a game called kataw that Laotian youths play, using only their feet to cooperatively keep the ball in the air. A Supply-Driven War In total the U.S. dropped more than 270 million cluster bomblets, or “bombies,” on Laos—more than one for every man, woman, and child in America at the time—as well as four million big bombs. The total weight of the bombs dropped was many times greater than the weight of the people living in Laos, which at the time had a population of perhaps two million. It worked out to as much as a ton of bombs per person.

Periodically during the war Washington announced a “bombing halt,” but the munitions conveyor belt stretching from the stockpiles in the U.S. 8,000 miles across the Pacific could not be switched on and off. Bombs that did not fall on Vietnam were redirected to Laos. It was the world’s first supply-driven war—the pent-up munitions constantly generating a demand for their use. This mass production of airborne death had no quality control: Possibly 80 million of the bombies didn’t explode on impact and are still considered live. Up to 10 percent of all the big bombs also failed to explode. Laotians are a forgiving people, but as long as Laos remains riddled with explosives, nobody can forget, because forgetting can kill you. No matter how beautiful the scenery on the Plain of Jars, don’t forget and climb that nearby hill for a better view. The bombs there could maim you, if they don’t kill you. No matter how many times you’ve warned your kids, don’t forget and let them pick up those toylike capsules. Those little round bombies might disfigure or kill them.

When the U.K.-based Mines Advisory Group held one of its classes about the dangers of UXO, schoolchildren listened as blast victims described their wounds—the psychological as well as the physical ones. Afterward the children were asked what they would say if they happened to meet some of the people who dropped the bombs. One little boy raised his hand. “I would tell him they should pay us money.” The U.S. Congress appropriated $12 million in 2014 for UXO removal. The new U.S. Embassy in Laos cost $145 million. This differential reflects U.S. priorities: a justifiable commitment to enhanced security for diplomats but also a near-total disregard for America’s historic responsibilities in Laos, where nearly every unexploded bomb was made in America and put there by Americans. War didn’t touch Buddha Park, a sculpture garden of concrete Buddhist and Hindu figures near Vientiane. Tourism revenue helps boost the country’s growing economy. The Laotian spirit has never been conquered—not by foreigners, not by the country’s own rulers.

In the future the Laotian people will continue transforming whatever befalls them into works of art that are of practical, everyday use, because it is their great gift to perceive utility and beauty where others see only destruction and waste. During the air war Laotian craftsmen fashioned sleek motorized canoes from the discarded fuel pods of B-52 bombers—craft so distinctive that the Imperial War Museum in London acquired one for its collection. In our consumer age of fast food and nonbiodegradable refuse, I saw a Pringles can turned into a votive candle holder in the temple behind the Lane Xang Hotel in Vientiane. With the passage of time the temple has become bonded to the great, multirooted shade tree next to it. In addition to fast-food containers, this shrine incorporates stones plucked from the Mekong and auspicious tree roots into a unified, and poignant, expression of piety. Near the Louangphabang airport I encountered another example of how life in Laos perpetually finds a way to flourish. Vines twine around the dead wires of the antennas the CIA once used to transmit its secrets. This gift for life in no way undoes the harm done—and still being done.

Stephen Wilkes is an award-winning fine art and commercial photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Time. This is his first feature story for National Geographic. What did you want to convey about Laos through your images? These people have an extraordinary ability to forgive and persevere. I hope this piece opens American eyes to the tragedies of the war and that, as a nation, we begin accepting our responsibility to do more. Follow T.D. Allman on Twitter . Follow Stephen Wilkes on Twitter . | The most bombed country on earth The most bombed country on earth The scale and nature of the bombing which the US carried out in Laos during its 1964-73 'Secret War' have no precedent. The cluster bombs it dropped still continue to kill and maim men, women and children of this impoverished country. And yet, observes Tom Fawthrop, men like Dr Henry Kissinger who were behind these war crimes have never been brought to book and the US still refuses to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions. LAOS , a small landlocked country in South-East Asia known as 'the most bombed country on earth', fittingly hosted an international disarmament conference in November 2010.

This was a follow-up to an Oslo conference in 2008 when 94 nations signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), an international treaty to ban all cluster weapons (see box on p.42) following in the footsteps of the global campaign to ban landmines which came into force in 1999. 'This convention is a humanitarian instrument in nature that aims to liberate ourselves from fear and threat of cluster bombs,' Saleumxay Kommasith, director general of the department of international organisations at the Lao foreign ministry, told IPS news agency. 'We view our role in the cluster ban treaty as a contributor to the global effort to ban cluster munitions.' During the 'Secret War' waged by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1964 to 1973 against communist and nationalist forces in Laos, more bombs were dropped on this rural nation of poor farmers than all the explosives dropped on Germany and Japan in the Second World War.

Over two million tons of ordnance was dropped over Laos during the 580,000 bombing missions - this equates to approximately a planeload of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years. A Secret War? The war was no secret to the poor farmers and their families, terrorised by the US air force. It was not a secret war in the minds of a multitude of refugees who fled their farmland to seek refuge in caves, or the tens of thousands who flocked to the safety of the capital Vientiane and its camps for displaced persons. But this CIA-run war was deliberately kept hidden from the US Congress and the US media. A succession of US presidents lied to their people and denied any US . The nation's attention was focused on neighbouring Vietnam where there were half a million US soldiers on the ground.� Victims' account �Fred Branfman was shocked to discover, when interviewing refugees from the Plain of Jars in 1969, that his government had been secretly bombing this area of Xieng Khouang province for five years and he, a US Laos , knew nothing about it. Several books have been published about the various aspects of the war.

Some of these books, such as The Ravens, have glorified Air America, the CIA airline that supplied food and arms to a mercenary army composed of Hmong tribespeople and people of Thai and other nationalities on the CIA payroll, recruited to fight the Pathet Lao, a communist-led force with strong rural support. Branfman's book, Voices from the Plain of Jars, is the only account from the perspective of the victims of the aerial bombardment. The poor rice farmers had no idea why some mighty alien force wished to exterminate them. They did not know how innocent civilians had become targets, even less could they understand why their homeland was being pulverised. First published in 1972 and reprinted in 2010 on the occasion of the CCM conference in Laos , Branfman's book reproduces a collection of interviews with refugees and their children's drawings of the war. In 1971 the Royal Lao government, which was totally dependent on US aid for its survival, expelled Branfman for publicising information about the US bombings.

On 22 April 1971 he testified before a US Senate committee hearing on the bombing of Laos and told them, 'The evidence is clear that the US is conducting the most protracted bombing of civilian targets in history.'�� In the introduction to the 2010 edition of his book, Branfman writes, 'The US bombing and its deadly legacy of cluster bombs has tormented and tortured the innocent people of Laos for nearly 50 years now . If there is any justice in this world, the international community will at least now find a way to clean up the unexploded ordnance still destroying the lives of the innocent, and offer assistance to the victims.' After the shooting stops�� Landmines and unexploded cluster bombs do not observe peace treaties and ceasefires. Lurking just beneath the ground or concealed by vegetation, they continue to kill people long after the shooting stops and the war is over. Farmers tilling their land are often maimed or killed when striking 'bombies' that settle below ground. Children are frequent victims because they are attracted to the bombies' bright colours and odd shapes. In Laos at least 250 million cluster sub-munitions were dropped.

Using a minimum failure rate (failure to explode) of 5% and a maximum of 30%, it is estimated that at least 78 million sub-munitions remain unexploded after impact. Forty years later, 13 out of Laos ' 15 provinces remain contaminated by unexploded bombs and the debris of war. Cluster munitions account for well over 50% of all the explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties in Laos , according to official estimates. In some areas the cluster munitions threat has actually increased due to a high demand for new agricultural land and growing numbers of people collecting unexploded ordnance (UXO) as scrap metal. The civilian toll makes for grim reading. Over 50,000 people have been killed or injured as a result of UXO accidents between 1968 and 2008, according to the UXO regulatory body in Laos . These weapons are normal parts of their arsenal, with the US possessing a very large stockpile of cluster munitions. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said cluster munitions are regarded by the US as 'legitimate weapons with clear military utility'.

Richard Kidd, the Director of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the US State Department, wrote in 'Is There a Strategy for Responsible US Engagement on Cluster Munitions?' (28 April 2008): 'Cluster munitions are available for use by every combat aircraft in the US inventory, they are integral to every Army or Marine manoeuvre element and in some cases constitute up to 50% of tactical indirect fire support.' Israel also liberally deployed cluster weapons as part of its 2006 bombing campaign in Lebanon . Russia is another major country that has resisted the overwhelming humanitarian arguments that have convinced most governments that cluster bombs must be outlawed. Regrettably, many developing countries, including China empire and its denial of responsibility The US government in its public relations has always claimed to be a world leader in the disbursement of humanitarian aid for the developing world. However, the victims of the 'Secret War' 40 years ago and new victims who suffer from bombs being accidentally detonated today, have received zero compensation and minimal medical aid for the terrible injuries inflicted by cluster bombs and other weapons.

The government spent $10 billion on bombing Laos back into the Stone Age, but only a paltry $5 million was allocated in 2010 to cleaning up the vast swathes of valuable farmland still infested with the deadly legacy of the war. But when it comes to searches for bones of American soldiers classified as 'missing in action', the budget for Laos and its own indigenous people could readily qualify as crimes against humanity. Alfred McCoy, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US , says towards the end of the film The Most Secret Place on Earth (directed by Marc Eberle): 'We destroyed a whole civilisation, we wiped it off the map. We incinerated, atomised human remains in this air war.' However, by its refusal to sign up to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the US exempts itself from any global jurisdiction and proclaims its impunity from prosecution and accountability. War criminal? Henry Kissinger, President Nixon's Secretary of State, directly authorised the bombing of Laos , and also supervised the 'secret bombing' of Cambodia during the same period.� Various private prosecutions have accused him of being a war criminal for his involvement in carpet bombing of Laos and Vietnam .

In addition, human rights groups also hold him responsible for the brutal invasion of East Timor (1975) and the Pinochet coup in Chile But inside the US , Kissinger is anything but a wanted man. He is toasted by high society, and CNN frequently invites him to appear on screen as a respected commentator on world affairs. Viewed through the prism of the US ideology that they send troops around the world for a benevolent purpose, the blood on Kissinger's hands is invisible. His intimate connection to cluster bombs and murder by fragmentation has been either erased from memory or never recorded by most US media networks. The ICC is now knocking at Colonel Gaddafi's door. And yet the alleged war crimes of Gaddafi pale in comparison with the destruction inflicted on Laos Tom Fawthrop is a journalist and filmmaker who has been based in South-East Asia for 30 years. His latest documentary is Where Have All the Fish Gone?: Killing the Mekong Dam by Dam ( Eureka Films). What is a cluster bomb?� THE tennis-ball-sized cluster bombs, also known as 'bombies', are designed to kill individuals. Hundreds of bombies are packed into a single canister.

These canisters are dropped from a plane and then open in mid-air, dispersing bombies over an area the size of several football fields. Each bombie contains some 300 metal fragments, and if all the bombies in a canister detonate, approximately 200,000 metal fragments are propelled in every direction. Cluster bombs release their fragments at high velocity. When they strike human flesh, they create pressure waves that do massive damage to tissues and organs. A single fragment can explode the intestines or rupture the spleen even when that fragment enters the body some distance from these organs. Cluster bombs fail to detonate 10-30% of the time and can stay hidden in the landscape for decades. In Laos , an estimated 78 million or more unexploded bombies remain as a deadly legacy of the US Forty years on, Laos reaps bitter harvest of the secret war | World news | The Guardian World news Forty years on, Laos reaps bitter harvest of the secret war More than 100 countries will today sign a convention banning the use of cluster bombs. In Laos, the most bombed nation on earth, their lethal legacy is a part of daily life.

Part of a US bomber lies in a temple in Phanop village, Laos. "We keep it here to remind the children of what happened," the monk said. "If one day we badly need money we might sell it for the scrap value." Photograph: Sean Sutton/Mines Advisory Group Ian MacKinnon in Phonsavanh, Laos Tuesday 2 December 2008 19.01 EST First published on Tuesday 2 December 2008 19.01 EST Close This article is 8 years old The entrance to Craters restaurant is guarded by a phalanx of bombshells, each as big as a man. Opposite, the Dokkhoune hotel boasts an even finer warhead collection. For tourists who have not cottoned on, the Lao town of Phonsavanh lies at the heart of the most cluster-bombed province of the most bombed country on earth. The haul of unexploded ordnance (UXO) is just a taster of that littering the countryside, or sitting in vast piles around homes and scrapyards.

The deadly harvest from the US bombing of this landlocked country 30 years ago in the so-called "secret war" as the real battle raged in next-door Vietnam has become big business. Steel prices that surged on the back of soaring demand from China's go-go economy drove up scrap prices five-fold in eight years in impoverished Laos . It sent subsistence rice farmers, struggling make to ends meet amid spiralling food and fuel prices, scurrying into their fields in search of the new "cash crop". But it comes at a high price. At least 13,000 people have been killed or maimed, either digging in fields contaminated with live bombs or, increasingly, in their quest for lucrative scrap metal. Half the casualties are young boys, most killed by exploding tennis-ball-sized cluster bomblets - christened "bombies" locally - that are everywhere. The scale of the contamination is mind-boggling. Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bomb-load every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. US bombers dropped more ordnance on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the second world war.

Of the 260m "bombies" that rained down, particularly on Xieng Khouang province, 80m failed to explode, leaving a deadly legacy. Overwhelmed by the immensity of the clear-up, Laos - which has dealt with just 400,000 unexploded munitions - had resisted the signing today in Oslo of a treaty banning cluster bombs and demanding that remnants be cleared within 10 years. But the country has had a rethink and will now be a key player in the ceremony. For Laos it could be a godsend, focusing world attention on its plight and bringing international resources to tackle the problem. With 37% of agricultural ground made unsafe by unexploded munitions in a nation where four-fifths of people farm the land, the scourge has stifled development. Yet farmers eking out a living below the dollar-a-day poverty line have no choice. Bombs unearthed as they gingerly peck at the soil are planted around, or moved to the side of the field.

"In the end the Lao people regard lack of food as much greater threat than unexploded bombs," said David Hayter, the Lao country director of British-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG). "It's just that each UXO death is marked by a big bang, but deaths from lack of food or poor water are less noticeable." Fatalistic acceptance of the danger is fostered by familiarity. Bomb remains are fashioned into everyday items: cluster-bomb casings become fencing; houses perch on stilts crafted from 500lb bombs; mortars with fins are used as table lamps. "People's familiarity is the most striking thing for me," said Jo Pereira, an occupational therapist with the Lao charity Cope, which fits UXO victims with prosthetic limbs. "They've lived with it for so long. Much of it is in their houses. Children think 'we've got those at home' and don't see the risks." So when scrap metal prices rocketed many saw it as a heaven-sent opportunity to boost meagre incomes. For those unable to grow enough rice to feed their families throughout the year, there is little choice but to collect UXO scrap despite the dangers.

"People have lived with this for two generations," said Gregory Cathcart, an MAG programme officer. "They don't view it as risky. It's simply a cash crop. The problem is the main scrap on the surface is gone, so they've to dig it up which is extremely dangerous." Cheap Vietnamese metal detectors costing as little as £7.36 boost the business. Landless families have turned full-time scrap collectors, earning up to £2.70 a day if they unearth six or seven kilos. Stumble on half a cluster bomb casing of "best Detroit steel" and they hit pay-dirt, worth £20 to £27. No such luck for Sher Ya, 25. He plonks a plastic bag of bullet casings on the scrap dealer's scales and anxiously eyes the needle. His teenage brother dredged the shells from their village rice field. It earns a welcome 40p. "My family grows only enough rice for six months," he said. "So when we're not planting or harvesting we collect bomb scraps. It's scary, but we've no choice." The trade is so lucrative that scrap dealers ferry collectors by truck to virgin forests every day.

Sypha Phommachan, 45, need not to go to such lengths. Farmers around Thajok village beat a path to the scrap dealer's door. A pile of fragments, casings, and mortars is all she had left after the foundry took away nearly eight tonnes a few days before. "That took me about three weeks to collect," she said. "That's quite slow because it's the rice harvest season and people are busy farming. In a couple of months they'll be out furiously collecting to raise cash for the Hmong festival." Yet she carefully inspects the bomb harvest, rejecting live munitions. She knows the risks. In the six years she has lived in the village, 10 people have been killed collecting scrap. One 50-year-old man died three months ago when he tossed half a "bombie" he believed safe into the wicker basket on his back. It exploded and the ball-bearings it threw out went clean through his chest, killing him instantly. Today's treaty banning the stockpile and use of cluster munitions is due to be signed by 107 countries - including the UK, which has been the third biggest user.

Those holding out include the US, China, Russia and Israel. But Richard Moyes, co-chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition, is confident that the convention will change the climate. "We sense we'll see a dramatic decline in cluster munitions use even among states that don't sign." Norway initiates negotiations on a treaty outlawing cluster munitions, which about 100 nations are due to sign Published: 3 Dec 2008 UK and Germany welcome pact against cluster bombs, but US and Russia opt out Published: 2 Dec 2008 Photographer Sean Sutton reports on the work of MAG (Mines Advisory Group) in Laos Published: 2 Dec 2008 Ian MacKinnon visits one of the most bombed places on earth in Laos Published: 3 Dec 2008

Question: Which country, between 1964 and 1973, became the most bombed country in the world?
Answer: Laos