Bombies: The Aftermath of the Secret War, a photo from Xiangkhoang, North

Photographer's Note

The Aftermath of the Secret War

I have deviated from my journal presentation for the purposes of continuity of subject. I will return to Day 9 later. See yesterday’s post for details of the Secret War.
With 1.9 million metric tonnes of ordinance dropped on Laos there is much that was unexploded. The biggest problem is the bomblets, locally called bombies, from the cluster bombs. They are no bigger than a small rock easily camouflaged to the eye of the farmer tilling his land………or the child playing in the field….
The Secret Air Force made 580,944 sorties:
Each cluster bomb held 670 bombies:
Each bombie held 300 ball bearings:
Each bombie operating on a clockwork mechanism, had to turn 2,400 times to explode:
Often the bombers flew too low so the bombies didn’t rotate the required number of times, leaving them lethal in the land. Imagine 670 unexploded bombies from just one bomb dropped too low. AND on average, a bomb was dropped every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day for 9 years.
Since the end of the war there have been over 11,000 casualties. Last year 54 people were killed, many of them children; usually about 40% are children. Over ¼ of the Lao population are still affected.
MAG(UK) started work in Laos to begin organised clearance of UXOs (unexploded ordinance) in 1994. In 1996 Laos created its own national organisation UXO Laos, with MAG advice and support. I’ll put a link at the end for those interested.
Day10
Ours was the first group led by our tour leader Angus that was allowed into UXO Laos Headquarters. The director took us into his office and showed us the map on the wall. Different coloured pins indicate which areas have been cleared and which villages have had visits to educate them on avoiding the UXOs. They employ 175 people, 14 of whom are women; they operate in 4 teams and each team explodes 100 - 200 UXOs per week. MAG also has teams working directly exploding UXOs.
Up to 30.12 .2005, and since organised clearance began, the following ordinance has been exploded:-
Bombies 102,702, mines 132, large bombs 137 , other items 85,219.
There is no forward estimate for when the job will be completed. Both UXO Laos and MAG(UK) rely heavily on charity donations to fund their work.

After the discussion in the office and the viewing of large posters we were taken outside to see the terrible display of recovered ordinance. This photo is of some bombies; not a pretty photo I know. I’m not expecting points, but want to raise awareness.; please leave your un-rated comments. There’s a wide view of the display in the WS

Information and statistics from UXO Laos, MAG(UK) website and our guide - Pet

To find outmore about MAG(UK) see here

besnard, efigesta, vts_ch, Paolo, ChrisJ, Gerrit, nels, ktanska, Tue, singuanti, plimrn, sergio1, peter1892, MLINES, axiotea, terimakasi74 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

besnard (59196) 2006-03-23 4:49

Bonjour Kath
Jolie composition. Belles couleurs. C'est malheureusement un des aspects de la vie quotidienne dans ce pays.
Merci pour le partage.
Amitiés
Nicole

efigesta (12188) 2006-03-23 5:03

Hi Kath
interesting shot here, with a great pov and an interesting note

tks to share
regards
manuel

vts_ch (2624) 2006-03-23 5:25

Hi Kath,
I will not critic your photo under artistic pov, but more like the horror thos bombies are creating, many years after somme hidden masacres.
It is revolting me to know how many of those are still laying in the ground, killing kids and farmers that asked for nothing that just living there live, which is hard enough.

Thanks for telling us the truth, and showing us the bright side of Humans. Crap for most of them.

[2]

Paolo (41258) 2006-03-23 5:26

Hi Kath, a journalistic report image today.
the note is more important than the image, as i like on TE.
good work.
thanks, ciao

ChrisJ (171366) 2006-03-23 6:21

Hi kath

I went to Laos in 1998 & was also struck by the amount of UXO at Ponsavan. A good photodocumentary shot, with excellent sharpness. Tfs!

Gerrit (62042) 2006-03-23 6:54

It's not the prettyness alone that we're judging I think. The uglyness can be important as well.
It strikes me that these things look so harmless while you know they once killed people.
Thanks for the contribution and regards, Gerrit

[2]

nels (2623) 2006-03-23 7:49

good notes kath something like that must never happen again as you say the unexploded ones do more harm to innocent people good colours poignant composition

adrian

[2]

lukie (0) 2006-03-23 8:11

Hello Kath,

horrible story ! Anyhow, you deserve the points for your concern about it !

regards,

Luc.

ktanska (44492) 2006-03-23 8:31

Hi Kath,
Actually the picture looks good, style of olli I think. And I like rusty stuff, except bombs of course!
It's all so wrong what has happened there.
Kari

coco (30439) 2006-03-23 10:01

Hi Kath.
This is not the kind of photo where you can see beautiful composition or good colours or similars.
This kind of shot is a good exemple of the meaning of TE. And sometimes is good remember it.
If one photo is useful because we can learn with this picture, then we are in front a good TE photo. Even I would say only in front of a good photo.

And just now I am reading that at the end of the note you are saying exactly this: this is not a pretty photo.
And I am not making a critique of a nice photo. I am making a critique of a photo that, I think, is interesting, because note and photo are useful.
And I think that in TE this is a good reason.

Carlos.

[2]

leo61 (0) 2006-03-23 13:37

Hi Kath!

I don`t give you a smile for composition,POV,colors...... but for reminding us what happened and still happens daily.
Last year I`ve been 5 weeks to Cambodia/Vietnam/Laos and have seen and spoked to many verry young handicapted people caused by these bombs.Instead of buying the stupid
t-shirt"danger mines,I survived Cambodia"I gave a donation for one of these companies.
Thanks for your good note!!!more important than the foto
excuse my bad english,regards,LEO

rosaline (0) 2006-03-23 14:02

Hi Kath
Powerful, sad and disturbing information. Decades after the war, the bombs are still leathal, and will continue to be so. I'm glad you're showing us this. This is certainly learning about the world through photography.
Well done
Aubrey

[2]

Tue (91692) 2006-03-23 16:08

Hej Kath,
Thanks again for the interesting note. I like the pattern the small stones create and to see the same kind of pattern on the bombies. The colours are also nice, good photo.
Hilsner,
Lars

singuanti (15250) 2006-03-23 22:01

Hi Kath. You did about as well as expected with this picture and it's more about the note and message. The aftermath of those undetonated bombs sounds as bad as forgotten landmines. tfs Kath.

plimrn (21344) 2006-03-23 23:31

Hi Kath,
Thanks for including a link that makes donations possible
Pat

Stepan (27210) 2006-03-24 15:46

An interesting close up to speak about the war. The bombs look like the sand and that's quite scarrying, thinking about the people living there.
Useful and good compo.
Stéphane

[2]

sergio1 (12152) 2006-03-27 5:01

Hi again kath
Good compo and work. I like the note. This is a dramatic shot but it's very inresting.
Good work kath,
Regards
sergio
Sorry for my english

peter1892 (1681) 2006-03-27 16:53

An incredible document Kath, well within the spirit of the site. Reading the note I'm filled with a sense of anger & sadness over such a thing...

Any of us can post pretty pictures here on TE, but I always admire someone for posting something that's important, thanks for doing so.

Flavia (10352) 2006-03-29 19:38

Hi Kath,

I'm glad you chose to move a bit from your journal presentation to present more of this tragic reallity. I don't understand and I think I'll never will the purpose of war, even more of this kind of weapon that continue to kill and mutilate civilians long after the end of a conflict. So much waste of money and energy in developing these weapons and then on using them... all that coud be used instead to help people. Just dream with a world without war ... Thanks for sharing your experience.

Regards,

Flavia

MLINES (12516) 2006-04-30 4:57

Kath, Very good expose of these terrible devices. Excellent message for TE folk. GOOD pov. Thanks for this photo and story, unfortunately still going on in different places. Good work. Murray