A change of pace in Laos....

As a result of recent conversations with expatriates and Laotians, I became curious about the unwarranted involvement of Laos in the Vietnam War. So, I visited COPE (www.copelaos.org), a national rehabilitation center that treats patients in need of prosthetic devices and wheelchairs. Nearly 40% of their patients come to the center due to injuries left by UXO’s (Unexploded Ordinance.)

I was bewildered to see the devastation afflicting this tranquil nation, nearly four decades after the conflict, and my experience at COPE compelled me to dig more deeply. I rang my friend Markus, a photographer who covers various issues in Asia, and he, too, was keen to spend 5 days traveling through Khammouane Province. We planned our trip with two goals in mind, to observe how the war has impacted villages along the Ho Chi Minh trail, a network of roads connecting North and South Vietnam by way of Laos, but to also explore more current issues, specifically environmental problems that are drastically affecting the direction of this country.



The trip began in Tha Khek, about a 6 hour bus ride from Vientiane. From there we rented motorbikes and headed east, en route to Vietnam. Along the way we visited caves and villages, all of which were heavily targeted during the war. We climbed up limestone cliffs where hidden caves, used as protection during the war, overlooked breathtaking views below where bomb craters could be seen covering much of the land, altering the local ecology.





Laos is the most heavily bombed country in history. From 1964 to 1973, over 260 million cluster bombs were dropped (2 million tons) with 78 million that failed to explode. The statistics vary but it is alleged that more than 12,000 UXO-related accidents have occurred since 1973, when the war ended, and that more than 50% of the victims are children, whom unknowingly try to take the bombs apart or play with them. (CopeLaos.org.)





Here at Phanop Village along the Ho Chi Minh trail, the remnants of old ordinance, usually good quality steel, copper, and aluminum, are reincarnated into herb planters, various household items, and boats made from the fuel tanks of US planes.









Along seemingly endless paths, we found forests, which opened to ragged clearings, void of trees, bare and lifeless. Foreign companies from neighboring countries, which have depleted their own, are quickly exploiting the natural resources in Laos. Forests have been severely affected by the construction of roads, logging, wartime bombings, and more recently, hydro-electric dams. The rural villagers depend on these forests for food, firewood, medicinal herbs, and wood for building homes.





The government of Lao PDR has licensed numerous multi-million dollar plantation projects throughout Laos, sacrificing the existence of local villagers who rely on that land for farming, hunting, and natural resources.