Fishbike53walkabout: At The MAG Info Center..

I spent time at the UXO Survivor Information Center on the main street of Phonsavan, two doors down from MAG. The Center is operated by the Quality of Life Association (QLA) which is a provincial not for profit orgabization that provides support for UXO survivors.

They cover the cost of initial and ongoing medical treatment of UXO survivors and manage a range of livelihood training initiatives to help victims have a sustainable livelihood after their accident. A common cause of UXO accidents is digging on the farm, so for many UXO victims, farming is no longer an option. The organization is also about Lao people helping Lao people; the QLA team. The Board of Directors are Lao nationals, some of whom are UXO survivors themselves.

The Center has an exhibition with information about the various programs and short stories about some of the people they have helped. The Center also includes a small shop seling handicrafts that have been made by UXO survivors and UXO affected communities. The proceeds go to UXO survivors and towards buying more materials for making more products. Well worth a visit. Open all week, Mon & Tues until 4pm, Wed to Sun until 8pm.

I found the guest logbook especially interesting and took photos of some of the comments that people had left after learning about the devastating effects of UXO on the Lao people (especially the children, who are about 50% of the casualties).

UXO are everywhere around Phonsavan. Over 99%of UXO remain in the Lao countryside, farm fields, forests, roadsides and historical sites (like the Plain of Jars).

Over 600,00 TONS of UXO remain in Lao and and much of it will remain for at least the next century. The maiming and killing of children, farmers and those traveling even several feet off designated paths will continue for generations.......

My father, a career USAF pilot was involved in this debacle. He was the pilot of an Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center (ABCCC) plane in 1966, about the time the bombing began. Bombing intensified each year, peaking around 1969 or 1970.

B-52 bombers - flying at over 35,000 feet could not be seen or heard by the Lao on the ground. There was no warning when the bombing began.

Think about the times you have been outside and seen the contrails of passenger jets flying at 35,000 feet overhead. If not for the contrails, you have no idea that the sky is full of passenger jets.

I have read a description about the bombing that described it this way "Bombs fell like seeds being sown by the handful by a farmer ...."

UXO are not isolated to Lao. Cambodia and Viet Nam are also contaminated.

Maimed locals from UXO were much more visible in Cambodia - in Siem Reap and at Angkor. Both are major tourist destinations and also have many more tourists and tourist dollars than in Phonsavan.

Phonsavan is not yet a major tourist destination, as the Plain of Jars has yet to receive World Heritage status - but is should receive the designation in several more years. When the POJ does receive World Heritage status - like Louang Prabang and Angkor Wat - tourism will greatly increase and the maimed and disfigured Lao will become much more visible as they attempt to make a living by selling books, playing music...or sitting on a street corner with a bucket, just plain begging. Lord knows they cannot work in the fields, which almost everyone does, except business owners.

All over Angkor you will often hear music being played in the distance as you walk from monument to monument. As you get closer, you find a small platform about 12 feet by 12 feet - about 2 feet off the ground (to be above the monsoon flooding).

There will be 4-6 individuals sitting on the platform and playing traditional Cambodian music and selling a CD for $10 or $15. The music is quite melodic and enjoyable.

Some of the musicians will have missing hands, others a foot blown off. Some might be blinded. Some might be adults, some might be children.