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Published: December 29th 2010
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A postscript to Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars. In a change to our schedule we crammed in the visits to the three main “jar” sites into Tuesday to free up Wednesday morning. Having learned something of the Secret War, I asked Phonsy if there was anywhere we could visit to learn about the UXO removal plan. He said that this was sometimes possible since he had a friend who worked at the regional centre. After a couple of phone calls we got permission to visit the following morning.
This meant a fairly early start and a chilly ride out to the regional office on the edge of town for 8 o’clock. We were met by the regional coordinator and given a detailed run through of the various regional centres and the different tasks that they perform. They maintain a number of teams, some engaged in “routine” survey and clearance operations, others in education, advance survey and fast response.
The centre also provides storage for any bombs discovered which can’t be destroyed safely in-situ. Somewhat scarily, it is transported in then stored for a week or so until they arrange a time for destruction.
After around 30 minutes we headed out to meet one of the clearance teams working in a village about 10km outside town. The team has been there since September and is clearing land to allow the villagers to grow more crops. First they carry out a visual surface inspection which he described as “based on experience”. Next it’s out with the detectors which are set to detect metal and fragments up to 35cm deep. That’s a safe depth for ploughing but for construction they have to clear down to 2 or 3m below the surface which obviously takes a lot longer. If the operator discovers something (which is frequently), he (or she) uncovers it (gently) and carries out a first level identification. Small fragments can be removed; anything else is marked for later assessment. Some may be blown up where they’re found: others have to be moved away from buildings before being destroyed. The live bombs have a small TNT charge attached, then they’re smothered with sandbags to catch the shrapnel, a long fuse is attached and everyone retreats about 500m. The villagers are all made aware what’s about to happen by megaphone warnings, and then the charge is detonated. No-one goes near for a couple of hours afterwards in case of secondary explosions: a few years ago, a couple of workers were killed when a second bomb went off 20 minutes later. It was directly below the first one and hadn’t registered with the detector.
The project is government run but funded from a variety of sources: the one we visited is mainly Japanese funded. They do a fantastic job considering the resources at their disposal but the cold facts make very depressing reading. I won’t add any more here but take a look at their website www.uxolao.gov.la.
And finally, as we head south to Vientiaine, more on the hotel. Cold, noisy, grimy, grumpy staff, grim breakfast. In one word – crap. I rebelled this morning and headed across the street to Craters Restaurant. The name is in fairly bad taste, all things considered, but the breakfast was excellent!.
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John S
non-member comment
Very interesting...
...and a little unusual, bet nobidy else has done that on there "holiday". Keep up the reports...enjoying it....