The war people never knew about

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Day 361: Thursday 25th June - The Secret War

After an 8 hour journey to cover only 200km through twisty, mountainous roads surrounded by lush vegetation, dodging cows on the road (a typical Laos journey), I arrive in Phonsavon, the capital of Xieng Khouang province. Unsurprisingly the bus station is 5km from town so I will need transport to get there. I manage to blag a free lift into the town, on the proviso I check out a couple of guesthouses that they are touting. The second is decent, but I told Ross and Yo-Hun that I was heading to King Keo guesthouse. As I am getting a lift there I spot Yo-Hun and Ross in the town checking out tours. I check into King Keo, where the other two arrived an hour or so ago and then the three of us go and book a tour tomorrow to the Plain of Jars, the main tourist attraction in and around Phonsavon. I don’t feel so bad about my free lift now as the guy giving me a lift works for the agency we booked the tour with.

After a quick noodle soup, the three of us settle down to watch ‘Bombies’, a film documentary about the Secret War. Prior to reading my guidebook On Laos I was oblivious to this tragic event in world history, as I’m sure most people are in the western world. For the next hour I am transfixed and moved as I learn about both the secret war and the ongoing effect it has on the lives of ordinary people in Laos.

Before explaining about the contents of the documentary and the secret war, a quick poser: Which is the most bombed country in the history of warfare? I know the answer but if I didn’t I would be looking no further than the countries involved in the major conflicts of the last six decades: Germany, Britain, Japan, Vietnam or Iraq maybe? Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. The answer, surprisingly as it has not been involved in a war is Laos. Whilst not actively at war, Laos was involved in the Secret War between 1964-1973 as the US fought against the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. Laos was not the aggressor in this conflict, rather it was subjected to a systematic bombing campaign in the North East and South East of the country. The Americans targeted the North East of the country as this was the stronghold of the Pathet Lao, the communists who were involved in a power struggle internally against the American backed Royal Lao forces. They also targeted the South East as this area was on the Ho Chi Minh trail, and was used by the North Vietnamese to supply front lines.

The secret war happened even though in 1962 the US signed the Geneva accord, which recognized the neutrality of Laos and forbade the presence of foreign military personnel. To evade the Geneva agreement the US placed CIA agents in Foreign-Aid posts and turned air-force pilots into civil pilots. The US trained the Royal Lao forces as well as Hmong hill tribe guerrillas. It is known as the Secret War because even the US Senate didn’t know what was happening. The name of the country of Laos was forbidden in official government communications and Laos (and Cambodia which was also carpet bombed although not to the extent of Laos) became the Secret War as the world focused on Vietnam.

The figures on the intensity and inhumanity of the US bombing campaign are telling. In nine years 90 million bombs were dropped and more than 2 million tonnes of ordnance dropped in over half a million missions. To put this into some kind of perspective, this is more bombs than were dropped on all of Europe during the Second World War. It is also equivalent to one plane load of bombs being dropped every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day for 9 years! Targets were primary and secondary (when the US couldn’t bomb a North Vietnamese target they dumped the load on Laos rather than return to their bases in Thailand/South Vietnam with ordnance on board. The Americans used a new weapon - the cluster bomb - which was designed to kill innocent civilians rather than damage tanks or other military targets. Defoliants and herbicides were also dropped on Laos, laying bare all vegetation, poisoning crops and rendering the water system unusable, even for irrigation. It is estimated that up to 30% of the ordnance dropped did not explode meaning that the people of Laos have still to live today with this terrible legacy of war.

Much of this bombing occurred in Xieng Khouang province. 85% of the villages were bombed and most of the population fled or hid in caves. Xieng Khouang is one of the poorest provinces in one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. The dispersed population is widely engaged in subsistence agriculture. The potential for rural development is hindered by the unexploded ordanance from the Secret War which lies on 25% of the province’s farm land, rice paddy, hillside and village environs causing a big risk to the people. The people of eastern Laos will have to live with under this dark shadow for generations to come. Even with the help of international agencies, 100,000 pieces of ordnance are being cleared per year. Doing the maths, with an estimated 30% of 90 million bombs dropped failing to detonate that means that there are approaching 30 million pieces of UXO which at the present rate of clearance will take almost 3 centuries to clear.....mindblowing, shocking, more has to be done.

And the response of the US government post 1973? The same US government which between 1950-1990 fought to save the world from a different political ideal, nothing more sinister. The same US government which critics would argue fought the Gulf War on the basis of protecting its Oil interests and the US government which since 9/11 has coined the phrase ‘fighting a war on terror’ which it will no doubt seek to legitimise future bloodshed. I remember reading somewhere that the US economy was based on the need to have wars every so many years to keep it moving. At the time I thought that was farfetched, but maybe there is some truth in it? Yes the response from the US government. Although the US is supporting projects to help, too little is being done. It continues to spend more money in flying helicopter sorties over Laos 2-3 times a year in the hope of finding US pilots shot down in the Secret War. I find this disgusting, when it could invest this money saving lives rather than in the faint hope of recovering bodies.

I’ve seen injustices on my travels, but none has touched me like this one. The world needs to know, and the people of eastern Laos deserve all the support they can get. More must be done to help them.

After the documentary, the three of us walk across the airfield to a shed for a couple of beers and some skewers of barbequed meat (buffalo/beef/dog ????!!) which is being sold at the ridiculously cheap price of 7 pence per skewer.

Day 362: Friday 26th June - The Plain of Jars

My primary reason for coming East was to see the Plain of Jars, although that has now been overtaken by learning more about Laos’ modern history. The tour visits Plain of Jars sites 1,2 and 3 (over 50 have been found and excavated). The archaeological sites consist of clusters of stone jars varying in height from 1 to 3 metres, and weighing up to a tonne. According to archaeological studies the jars are funerary urns carved around 2500 years ago. Other theories have suggested that they were storage jars for either food or water used on the overland trading route between China and India. My personal favourite theory is that told in Lao stories and legends. They claim that there was a race of giants who once inhabited the area. Local legend tells of an ancient king called Khun Cheung, who fought a long, victorious battle against his enemy. He supposedly created the jars to brew and store huge amounts of lao lao rice wine to celebrate his victory. That sounds about right for Laos! They are enigmatic and of unknown origin, outerwordly and ordinary at the same time. There are only so many stone jars you can look at before your interest begins to wane. By the third site I’ve had enough.

The tour doesn’t just concentrate on the stone jars. At sites 1 and 2 we can see bomb craters left behind from the US bombing between 1964 and 1973. Evidence of the UXO is everywhere. The paths are clearly defined and marked where it is safe to walk and where is unsafe as it hasn’t been cleared. We also see a cave and a trench network which was used to hide from the US bombers. During the day we even hear four separate explosions of UXO, which we assume are part of the ongoing clearance rather than a tragic event. We also get to sample some Lao Lao in a village on the way and my personal highlight which is to ride on a tractor to a nearby village when our transport daren’t risk getting stuck in the mud. We finish the tour by stopping at the site of a Soviet tank which was hit during the secret war.

War scrap has become an important part of the local architecture and economy in Xieng Khouang province. The bomb casings are fashioned into items of everyday use - as fence posts, as substitute for traditional wooden stilts, as plant pots, or sold as scrap. This I saw at the guesthouse, the tourist information office and in the houses in the villages near Phonsavon. In one of the villages we visit a house to see aluminium spoons being fashioned from the war scrap of downed US aircraft.

The tour finishes at 4pm, and as soon as it is over I get taken to the bus station. It’s a shame to be parting ways with Ho-Yun and Ross - I like them a lot - but after a year travelling I’m getting used to a constant flow of people moving in and out of my life. I’m sure we’ll keep in touch, for advice on the countries we’ve still to visit if nothing else. They think they’re off to Vang Vieng next, which I will get to in a few days, so we may even meet there?

The timing of my buses’ arrival from Vientiane is uncertain. In the end, I have a three hour wait which flies by. Whilst having some food in a cafe in the bus station, I am invited to join a group of local people and have a beer. Sonekeo does the talking - he is a teacher in a village within Xieng Khouang province. He is waiting for his cousin to arrive from Vientiane, and tells me about his family - he has two young children and about his school. I don’t know whether this meeting is fate, just chance or put together by a higher being (I’ll go for the latter) but it proves to be valuable. Just two days ago I bought some Lao-English books in the Big Brother Mouse project in Luang Prabang. I had intended to distribute them on my way throughout my trip in Laos, at a guesthouse or whenever someone was kind. I hoped to target villages where books are rarer than in the towns but that was just a hope. I initially give Sonekeo two books for his children but when we get chatting about his school I can think of no better idea than giving him all seven - the other five I give him for his school. To see the joy on his face is worth so much more than I paid for the books. The man is overjoyed, very grateful, invites me to go and stay with him there and then and takes my address to keep in contact. I decline the invitation to stay with him due to time more than anything but would like to stay in touch as I would love to help the people of this province, and knowing Sonekeo gives me an opening.

Sonekeo like most Laotians I’ve met is so unassuming and incredibly generous. He keeps my glass full of beer, offering many toasts to everything under the sun, buys me a tube of Pringles for my journey which I try to refuse before gratefully accepting as there is no other way and he even tries to pay for part of my bus ticket. To me the money I spent on the books and beer is small change, to him the beer and Pringles must surely represent a fortune. But money doesn’t matter, sat in the bus station in Phonsavon we’re very much equals. When his cousin Vannalet turns up, after chatting for less than an hour, he gives me his number and tells me to contact him when I reach Vientiane next week. Whether I take this opportunity or not I don’t know but the two guys are so friendly I probably should. There was nothing planned about this meeting but it demonstrates to me how much I love this country already after two weeks. The people are the best.

The two guys keep me right with the bus driver and conductor and make sure I get safely on board. One problem I do have after drinking all that beer is that I’m soon bursting for the toilet. My prayers are answered when the bus pulls over after an hour and I can now fall asleep for the rest of the 7 hour journey! As for Phonsavon it is definitely off-the-beaten path. The 18-22 brigade don’t come this far east in Laos, in fact the arduous journey here probably detracts most. Only those that really want to be here make it. It may not be the end of the universe, but it seems close. Historically rich, culturally poor, Phonsavan makes me feel like I've been somewhere special; somewhere few others have been lucky enough to see.

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