Bombing data superimposed on Google Earth’s imagery of the Xiengkhuang Province region around Phonsavan, Lao PDR from
7.1km above. Each red circle indicates a bombing mission. The airport is clearly marked. The current
town is on the upper right hand corner of the photo. Bombing data may be downloaded from the National
Regulatory Authority website, www.nra.gov.la and opened using Google Earth’s free software.
XIENGKHUANG PROVINCE
Xiengkhuang was always considered a strategically important geographic area. Fighting has occurred in the area since the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, continuing after the French return, and on into the period when the US replaced the French in supporting the Royalist Government, and the beginning of the Second Indo-China war.
Unlike other UXO affected provinces, it appears that the war in Xiengkhuang involved nearly the whole territory of the province. Intense air and ground battles occurred regularly between the Pathet Lao and their Vietnamese allies with the forces allied with the Royal Lao Government.
The Plain of Jars (PoJ) is a central plateau area overlooked by mountains and hills. Control of this was essential for the control of the province and the northern military theatre. Many of the wartime military activities concentrated around this area, as opposing forces battled for control of the plain itself, the surrounding mountains, and transit routes.
Pathet Lao (PL) and People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) troops used National Route 7. The Route crossed from near the Vietnamese border in the east, to the Luangprabang border in the west, and National Route 6 travelling south from Huaphanh and connecting with Route 7 on the north-eastern part of the Plain of Jars. There were also minor transit routes criss-crossing the province that were also targets for aerial bombardment. Military camps, airbases, and Lima sites were often located on mountains and hills in positions that gave them the ability to control the surrounding areas. The great majority of villages reported moderate to severe intensity of military activities near their villages during the war.
Of the 498 villages surveyed in 1996 and 1997, two-thirds of the villages reported the presence of UXO. Of these, 129 villages are severely contaminated, with only 76 villages reporting never having had a problem with UXO. The most common type of UXO reported in the provinces are anti- personnel BLUs, followed by mortars and projectiles. Only Pek and Morkmay districts did not report the presence of mines, while nearly half of all the villages in the district of Phookood reporting them. Unlike other affected provinces, Xiengkhuang has UXO in many locations and not just limited to a few areas around the villages. These include village centres, grazing lands, and lowland rice fields. In addition, significant numbers of villages report contamination of upland fields.
Xiengkhuang ranks 2nd among the nine provinces severely impacted by UXO.
The use and impact of cluster bombs.
When operating as designed, cluster bombs are capable of turning huge areas of territory into killing fields to achieve three primary objectives: causing immediate fatalities; causing disabling injuries; undermining the strategic objectives of enemy forces. The achievement of these primary aims has secondary effects: overloading medical evacuation and treatment facilities and diverting vehicles and manpower from other essential tasks; and undermining the morale of enemy forces through fear of the weapons’ effects and being exposed to large numbers of casualties horrifically injured by bomb fragments.
Laos
It has been estimated that from 1964 to 1973 as part of it’s strategy during the Vietnam War, the US dropped a planeload of bombs on the Lao people every eight minutes. The giant B52 planes that were principally used to bomb Laos were capable of carrying 30 tons of bombs. Many of these bombs did not detonate, with failure rates as high as 30 per cent. United Nations estimates put the amount of unexploded ordnance (UXO) still in the countryside in 1996 at about 500,000 tonnes. Much of this is cluster bombs and bomblets.
A 1995 study of two districts in Laos, Moung Pek and Moung Kham, with 24 villages and 56 villages respectively, found 1,153 UXO-related accidents recorded in a population of 97,562. Information was gathered on 66 such accidents during 1995 in these districts. Of the 66 victims, 36 were children under the age of 15. Thirty-two of them were boys. Of the 30 adults involved in accidents, 20 were men and 10 women. In total 14 people died and 52 were injured. The most common injury was severe shrapnel wounding to the body. The statistics from a group of subsistence farming villages show that at least 65 per cent of these incidents occur when the victims are engaged in essential daily tasks such as working in fields. These are not communities that have alternative lifestyles available to them.
Obviously, Phonsavan is not a place that I should perform random walkabouts. Finaly broke down...after 10 Days of free form travel.....and booked a mini van bus ride from Louang Prabang to Phongsavahn, tomorrow at 8:30 AM. Will be picked up at my hotel and was even able to reserve the front passenger seat vs being packed on a bench seat in the back of the van. We will see if it is true. This is my first reservation since 1/2/14 in Mae Sai.
What an amazing day. While having a mocha around 7:30 AM I ran into Robin. We had our morning coffees together and continued our conversations.
Later in the day - twice - crossed paths with Gerty, the German from the 2 day long boat ride. Toured the Lao National Museum
and ran into Francois and Laetitia, the French couple that left a passport in Pak Beng. They filled me in on their story...a long and somewhat expensive one, about their ongoing efforts to recover the passport. They should get it back in 4 days - hopefully.
Contacted Andy and Rondi after their visit with their foster son, Samsay, ironically a Health and Safety Engineer, and then we all finally had dinner together, although my ability to find the restaurant was somewhat compromised by misdirections, an errant tuktuk ride to a Wat 2 miles out of town, then another tuktuk ride back to town and 3 restuarants called Sunset on the Mekong.
Finally we all met - Gerty, Andy, Rondi, Francois, Latetitia, Robin and me. What stories and adventures!!! Changes in plans, new plans, etc.
New friendships, animated stories and good food and spirits are the magic elixir for great travel.....carry on.....
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