Truemors
Members of the <a href="http://www.magclearsmines.org/">MAG</a> (Mines Advisory Group) all-female clearance team. The team is searching primarily for cluster bomb units, tennis-ball sized anti-personnel munitions packed with ball bearings and dropped by the thousands during the war. This area was targeted for bombing during the Vietnam war due to its proximity to Route 7 into Vietnam.
There are seven clearance teams working in Laos, two of which are all female.
Laos is the most heavily-bombed country per capita in the world. Between 1964 and 1973, the United States military dropped over 2 million tons of bombs in 581,000 sorties in the course of their 'Secret War' in Laos. The legacy of the bombing continues to wound and kill Laotian citizens, as an estimated 20-30% of all bombs failed to detonate when they were dropped. Although they have laid in the earth for as long as 40 years, many of these bombs remain lethal.
MAG is a British humanitarian organization dedicated to clearing the remnants of conflict, notably land mines and unexploded ordnance. MAG has worked in 35 countries around the world including Laos.
Near Nong Het, Laos. November 2007.
As with seemingly every other international agreement that has the capacity to effect real change, from the Kyoto Accord to the International Criminal Court, those nations whose participation is most needed refuse to be involved in the talks or sign the accord.
That the United States, Russia, China and Israel did not participate or agree to today's treaty to ban cluster bombs is an unacceptable affront to the international community and to all of the people whose lives have been affected by these devastating and unnecessary munititions.
For a heartbreakingly human portrait of this issue, I urge you to see Bahman Ghobadi's incredible film "Turtles Can Fly". It's impossible to imagine any possible benefit for using these kinds of weapons, no matter what the conflict.
More than 100 countries attending a conference in Dublin, Ireland formally adopted a treaty Friday to ban cluster bombs -- a large, unreliable and inaccurate weapon that often affects civilians long after the end of armed conflict.Ali Wansa, a 44-year-old Lebanese national, lost his leg to a cluster bomb.
The countries agreed never to use cluster munitions or the explosive bomblets they contain, and they also agreed never to develop, acquire, retain or transfer cluster munitions, according to the official treaty document.
The 111 countries attending the two-week meeting agreed to the treaty Wednesday but formally signed it Friday.
The countries said they are "deeply concerned" about civilians suffering the long-term effects of cluster bombs.
They are "concerned that cluster munition remnants kill or maim civilians, including women and children, obstruct economic and social development, including through the loss of livelihood, impede post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction, delay or prevent the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, can negatively impact on national and international peace-building and humanitarian assistance efforts, and have other severe consequences that can persist for many years after use," the document said.
In addition to calling for a total, immediate ban of the weapons, the international accord calls for strong standards to protect those injured by them and to make sure that contaminated areas are cleaned up as quickly as possible and that the weapons are immediately destroyed, a spokesman for the Cluster Munition Coalition told CNN.
Some of the biggest makers and users of cluster bombs cited by human rights groups -- such the United States, Russia, China and Israel -- were not involved in the talks and did not sign the accord. Organizers expressed hope that those nations would nevertheless be pressured into compliance.
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