U.S. cluster munitions haunt Southeast Asia

By Elise Labott, CNN
Jul 28, 2011

This weekend in Bali, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a series of programs for Southeast Asia’s poorest countries as part the U.S. Lower Mekong Initiative.

The initiative aims to help countries along the Mekong River - Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam - by improving their infrastructure, health and education systems while quietly expanding U.S. influence in the region.

But for Laos, Washington’s forward-looking agenda is held hostage to its prior actions. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military dropped two million tons of bombs - more ordinance than was dropped in all of World War II. Put another way, one planeload of bombs were dropped every eight minutes, 24 hours a day for 9 years.

These bombs have killed more than 34,000 Laotians during the bombing campaign and afterwards. Many of the dead have been children.

The casualties continue to this day. In May, three children ages 9-10 were digging for bamboo when a cluster bomb exploded. One of the children was paralyzed, another killed.

The bomb was just one of more than 75 million unexploded cluster bombs that litter Laos' forests, rice fields and villages. Cluster munitions split open before impact and scatter hundreds of smaller bomblets over a wide area. Many of these bomblets failed to explode on contact. They can remain hidden for decades, waiting to maim or kill civilians.

More than 20,000 people have died at the hands of these remains of cluster munitions in Laos.

Meanwhile, funding to clean up the problem is relatively low. The U.S. spent $2 million ($17 million in today’s dollars) per day for 9 years to bomb Laos, but only an average of $3.2 million a year for clearance of UXOs over the past 16 years. Put another way: the U.S. spent as much in three days of bombing Laos as it did in the last 16 years trying to clean the bombs up.

In 2010, Congress mandated that the U.S. government give at least $5 million for unexploded ordinance removal. That’s about a third of the $14 million Laos receives each year for UXO clearance from all donors. Still it’s a pittance compared to the $145 million the U.S. spent for clearing Afghanistan and Iraq.

Advocates for demining efforts in Laos admit the legislation marked progress, but they find the levels woefully inadequate to deal with the magnitude of the problem. They fear current budget cuts and make even this level of funding uncertain.

The slow, painstaking process of demining has never been a sexy issue. So-called “legacy” issues of wars like the one in Vietnam are overshadowed by current events. In Asia, major political and economic relationships with close allies like South Korea and Japan and major powers like China suck up most of the U.S. attention.

Some dedicated U.S. officials are working to clean up unexploded ordinance in Laos. Despite the low levels of funding, officials worked with the United Nations, the government of Laos and about 18 other countries to help clear up several provinces, support victims and initiate educations programs.

With the Obama administration making engagement of Southeast Asia a priority, many officials hope there will greater funding for UXO clearance. After all, the sheer amount of unexploded ordinance in Laos hinders development and poverty reduction. Laos has less land to build factories, schools and farms on. With 70 percent of the country under 35, Laotian youth need, and deserve, a better future.

State Department officials acknowledge that one of the main drivers of funding for UXO clearance is the guilt Americans rightly feel. Surely American soldiers didn’t risk their lives decades ago in Vietnam only for a young child to be killed 40 years later by bombs they dropped in the line of duty.

In recent weeks seven former U.S. ambassadors and diplomats to Laos wrote Secretary Clinton recommending the U.S. increase demining funds to $10 million per year over the next ten years to clear high priority land and reduce the number of casualties. This funding level which could go a long way toward helping the Laotian government meet its goal of having all mines cleared by 2025. The government estimates it will take $30 million a year to do that.

War is expensive. The cost of picking up what was left behind is comparatively low and it is an important investment in the future, not just for the people of Laos, but for the U.S. seeking influence in an evermore important region.