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Published: November 7th 2011
by Jan After more than a week of partying, relaxing and watching films we were back on the road. It took us about eight hours to cover about 250 km to our next destination, Phonsavan, but that is what you get when you drive over the mountains in Laos (check out the
map in satellite mode to see what I mean).
On the last few journeys we got to see some interesting things. We always said that Slovenians can make alcohol out of anything (and we do, from fruits and veggies) but I guess we were wrong. I realized that when we saw bear schnapps, yes BEAR schnapps. A huge plastic bottle with pieces of a small bear in it. Gees! That is not all, we also saw snake schnapps, crickets and all sorts of other animals being used to add taste. This more or less goes with the fact that people in Laos eat pretty much anything that moves: being it lizards, bats and so on. So on another bus journey we stopped for a while as a kid and his mother were selling a rodent next to the road. We have seen kids showing off their catches before but this
time we saw the actual purchase. The guy who bought the animal "air weighted" the scared animal dangling from the string and, after some negotiations, paid 35.000 kip (£2.5) for his next meal.
Phonsavan Phonsavan is another "Wild West" type of town, with a few big streets cutting through the centre of town and that is it. The reason we came to this town was to learn more about the recent history that made Laos
the most bombed country in history and to visit the
Plain of Jars. We met up with Alex and Florian again, the boys left Vang Vieng a day before we did, but once again we were in the same place.
We spent the first two days in Phonsavan trying to understand better why Laos was bombed so heavily. I mean, we all know about the war in Vietnam, most of us heard that Cambodia is full of mines, but what about Laos? What we found out was shocking and we shaked our heads in disbelief more time that I care to admit. On average US dropped more than 2 million US$ worth of bombs on Laos every day for 9 years! I
think every single person in the world can think of a more productive way of spending that much money! In total more than 580,000 bombing missions were conducted over Lao PDR. For more facts see this
website.
It was all a result of a
secret war fought in Laos by the CIA. The American public and the US Congress were not informed about it, and the bombing of Laos lasted for nine years and survived three different presidents of the "land of the free and the brave".
US never sent troops into Laos, instead the CIA trained people from a Hmong tribe to fight the spread of Communism in South Asia. They provided them with food, weapons and basic training, which were conducted by Thai people. The ground "troops" were supported by constant bombings performed by the planes which were also fighting the Vietnamese wars. Sometimes when these planes weren't able to drop bombs in Vietnam (because of weather or some other reason) they just dropped them on Laos instead - no point bringing them back to the base, is there!?!
Anything, that moves, was considered a target. Being it life stock or people, civilians were a
fair target and why not?, it's not like there was even a war going on. It was all just a "CIA experiment". See links below to the movie
The CIAs covert war on Laos, to find out more.
Our next stop was the
MAG Office. MAG is a British organization that tries to clear Laos (as well as other countries across the world) of UXO – Unexploded ordinances. More than two million tons of ordnance was dropped on Laos, and an estimated 30%!((MISSING)!!!) of them did not explode and many of them are still scattered across the country. It seems the arms dealers really have an easy time making money. I mean, would you ever get paid in your job if 30%!o(MISSING)f your products were useless? You think a car company like Toyota would still be in business if one in three cars wouldn't work?
Sarcasm aside, the UXOs are a huge problem in Laos. Even over 40 years after the war people are dying and getting hurt because of it. UXOs are one of the main reasons for poverty as until the fields are cleared it is impossible to plant food, build infrastructure or even just
walk. Bombs can still be found in villages and under the roads as mud covered them over the course of four decades. People are forced to collect scrap metals (sometimes live bombs) to get some money. Kids are walking through dangerous terrain trying to find UXOs to sell. At MAG they show a great movie about the subject.
Bomb Harvest.
Link to movie.
The worst problem are the cluster bombs. The use and production of cluster bombs has been prohibited by
Cluster Convention adopted in Dublin and signed in Oslo. It is not a big surprise that the US, exporter of democracy,
did not sign the Convention.
Cluster bomb is a 1.5 meter long torpedo bomb, which is dropped from a plane. Once in the air, it opens, scattering 670 tennis-ball-size bombies. Once the bombie explodes 30 shell bullet like pellets fly out of it, killing or harming anybody (animals and people alike) in the radios of 20 meters. Like with other bombs, about 30%!((MISSING)220 bombies per bomb) did not explode! Bombies still kill one person per day in the area – 40 days after the last cluster bomb was dropped on Laos.
Documentary about bombies.
Remainders of the war can
be seen everywhere. Old bomb shells are used as house stands, flower pots, decoration. The metal is used for construction, making of cutlery, jewellery and so on.
On our last day in Phonsavan we booked a tour and visited the "crater valley". A piece of land filled by large holes made by bombs! Here we actually ran into a UXO team clearing the area. Very close to a village they found, and prepared to detonate, dozens of bombies!
We also visited the plain of jars, the main tourist attraction of the area, which is open for visitors since around 2005, when more than 200 UXOs were cleared from the small area surrounding the jars. We only visited one of three sites. It's a plain scattered with huge (the biggest being over 2.5m tall and weights over 6 tones) stone jars. They are suppose to be over 2000 years old, and interestingly, nobody knows what they were used for. Some theories claim they were used as caskets, while others believe that the area used to be populated by giants and they used them as, well, jars.
Sam Neua Our last stop in Laos was Sam Neua. We
wanted to stop here to visit Vieng Xai, a small village which used to serve as the HQ for the Pathet-Lao government – the communist government that the US tried to get rid off. Same as the plain of jars the area was subjected to heavy bombings. This meant that the people were not able to live a normal life outside. Luckily the Lao karst landscape provides many caves which served as hiding spots across the country. We have come across numerous caves which served as hiding places (homes) for Lao people during the war. Think of them as bomb shelters.
These caves are special in the sense that the Lao resistance was lead from this caves and that the people who worked here later (one of them still does) ran the country after the war. The 9 – man Politburo met in these caves where all the main decisions were made. Caves sheltered more than 23.000 people at one point. Besides the HQ cave, there was also a hospital cave, entertainment cave, living caves, army barracks caves and so on. The leaders of the revolution built their homes in-front of these caves once the war was over. When
visiting these caves you are escorted by a tour guide but you also get an audio-guide which is really good. It is the first time we ever used one and were very impressed.
What we learned in out last week in Laos shocked us. It made us think what all this was good for. Most of the Lao people had no idea what or where America was before the war started. They were farmers, not interested in politics, with no idea about what communism is. The bombs were a good enough reason for them to find out and to make a decision who they want to follow.
And what was that good for? In 2011, both Lao PDR and Vietnam are still communist countries and recent history of both countries is enough to fill the jar of hate towards the US for a very long time to come and UXOs will serve as a constant reminder.
To find out more about the CIA's secret war watch this hour long documentary
