Dating from possibly over 2000 years ago, there are apparently 18 sites with these huge stone jars scattered around the landscape like guests mingling at a wedding reception. No-one knows why they're there or what they were for, but they are rather beautiful and, obviously, intriguing. The group I am with visit the 3 main sites of the Phonsaven area. Driving through the Laos countryside I am struck by how this nation is so much more of a developing one than Thailand, Malaysia and even Indonesia. This also means that things are so much more natural – as in linked to the earth and the reality of living with it. It is far clearer here how powerful a force nature is...makes me wonder how, in the Western world, we think we've tamed or mastered it with technological advances and lots of concrete and steel. I don't know if we're mistaken or not, but I do think we've lost a vital connection to where we come from, what we're a part of. At each Jars site is an advisory board telling visitors to stay within the white coloured markers – this is not to stop you walking on the grass but an important security issue. Unexploded ordnance (UXO) remains a massive problem in Laos, particularly in Xieng Khuang Province. Laos...unexploded ordnance? What? My ignorance was total until I read the Laos section of my guidebook and followed their advice to go to the MAG (Mines Advisory Group) centre in Phonsaven. Basically, between 1964 and 1973 the USA bombed Laos, flying 580,344 missions and dropping 2 million tonnes of bombs. Which happened to be in complete contravention of the Geneva convention signed shortly before the year this Secret War started. Scared of communism in S.E. Asia, these bombings were generally untargeted and many involved what are locally known as 'bombies', cluster-bombs: a large casing housing hundreds of smaller bombs generally full of ball-bearings that explode in many directions on impact. A bit like blowing your nose, these scatter across the green landscape....as 30% of them did not explode, they constitute, 30 years on, a deathly legacy of an 'illegal' war (what war is legal?). The thought that kept going through my head at the MAG centre, looking at war remnants and learning about their impact on the people of Laos was that someone made these weapons. Companies made profit on these items whose sole purpose is to kill and injure civilians. Cluster bombs do not pierce tanks. Do not do any great damage to buildings (especially if they're fortified ones). The question I did not ask myself earlier about why Laos is still obviously a developing country has been answered. These people, especially in rural areas, risk death and severe injuries on a regular basis to do the daily activities required to make a living. Tilling the fields, staking a buffalo to pasture, getting scrap metal to sell, playing in the fields as children...all could end in a loud bang and loss of life, limbs, sight. Even road building, or indeed, any kind of construction is a far lengthier and expensive process because of the huge amounts of UXO covering vast swathes of the country. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Saturday, May 9, 2009
UXO and Plain of Jars
Phonsaven is reminiscent of a film set. Not in its grandeur (it doesn't have any) but in its sense semi-desolation – that air of having been forgot. The main street makes me feel like I am in a western; the dust, the straight, straight road lined with concrete shops and restaurants advertising the sale of the same things with sun-faded images. The products look like they're straight from a 1970s reconstruction project. I opt to stay at Kong Keo guesthouse and it turns out to be cheaper than most other options (always a bonus). Right by the old airfield it is atmospheric with old ordnance (more on that later) but rather empty, and my cell-like room seems damp and musty. Whatever. I am only really here for one thing – the Plain of Jars. Plains would be more accurate. 
Dating from possibly over 2000 years ago, there are apparently 18 sites with these huge stone jars scattered around the landscape like guests mingling at a wedding reception. No-one knows why they're there or what they were for, but they are rather beautiful and, obviously, intriguing. The group I am with visit the 3 main sites of the Phonsaven area. Driving through the Laos countryside I am struck by how this nation is so much more of a developing one than Thailand, Malaysia and even Indonesia. This also means that things are so much more natural – as in linked to the earth and the reality of living with it. It is far clearer here how powerful a force nature is...makes me wonder how, in the Western world, we think we've tamed or mastered it with technological advances and lots of concrete and steel. I don't know if we're mistaken or not, but I do think we've lost a vital connection to where we come from, what we're a part of. At each Jars site is an advisory board telling visitors to stay within the white coloured markers – this is not to stop you walking on the grass but an important security issue. Unexploded ordnance (UXO) remains a massive problem in Laos, particularly in Xieng Khuang Province. Laos...unexploded ordnance? What? My ignorance was total until I read the Laos section of my guidebook and followed their advice to go to the MAG (Mines Advisory Group) centre in Phonsaven. Basically, between 1964 and 1973 the USA bombed Laos, flying 580,344 missions and dropping 2 million tonnes of bombs. Which happened to be in complete contravention of the Geneva convention signed shortly before the year this Secret War started. Scared of communism in S.E. Asia, these bombings were generally untargeted and many involved what are locally known as 'bombies', cluster-bombs: a large casing housing hundreds of smaller bombs generally full of ball-bearings that explode in many directions on impact. A bit like blowing your nose, these scatter across the green landscape....as 30% of them did not explode, they constitute, 30 years on, a deathly legacy of an 'illegal' war (what war is legal?). The thought that kept going through my head at the MAG centre, looking at war remnants and learning about their impact on the people of Laos was that someone made these weapons. Companies made profit on these items whose sole purpose is to kill and injure civilians. Cluster bombs do not pierce tanks. Do not do any great damage to buildings (especially if they're fortified ones). The question I did not ask myself earlier about why Laos is still obviously a developing country has been answered. These people, especially in rural areas, risk death and severe injuries on a regular basis to do the daily activities required to make a living. Tilling the fields, staking a buffalo to pasture, getting scrap metal to sell, playing in the fields as children...all could end in a loud bang and loss of life, limbs, sight. Even road building, or indeed, any kind of construction is a far lengthier and expensive process because of the huge amounts of UXO covering vast swathes of the country. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Dating from possibly over 2000 years ago, there are apparently 18 sites with these huge stone jars scattered around the landscape like guests mingling at a wedding reception. No-one knows why they're there or what they were for, but they are rather beautiful and, obviously, intriguing. The group I am with visit the 3 main sites of the Phonsaven area. Driving through the Laos countryside I am struck by how this nation is so much more of a developing one than Thailand, Malaysia and even Indonesia. This also means that things are so much more natural – as in linked to the earth and the reality of living with it. It is far clearer here how powerful a force nature is...makes me wonder how, in the Western world, we think we've tamed or mastered it with technological advances and lots of concrete and steel. I don't know if we're mistaken or not, but I do think we've lost a vital connection to where we come from, what we're a part of. At each Jars site is an advisory board telling visitors to stay within the white coloured markers – this is not to stop you walking on the grass but an important security issue. Unexploded ordnance (UXO) remains a massive problem in Laos, particularly in Xieng Khuang Province. Laos...unexploded ordnance? What? My ignorance was total until I read the Laos section of my guidebook and followed their advice to go to the MAG (Mines Advisory Group) centre in Phonsaven. Basically, between 1964 and 1973 the USA bombed Laos, flying 580,344 missions and dropping 2 million tonnes of bombs. Which happened to be in complete contravention of the Geneva convention signed shortly before the year this Secret War started. Scared of communism in S.E. Asia, these bombings were generally untargeted and many involved what are locally known as 'bombies', cluster-bombs: a large casing housing hundreds of smaller bombs generally full of ball-bearings that explode in many directions on impact. A bit like blowing your nose, these scatter across the green landscape....as 30% of them did not explode, they constitute, 30 years on, a deathly legacy of an 'illegal' war (what war is legal?). The thought that kept going through my head at the MAG centre, looking at war remnants and learning about their impact on the people of Laos was that someone made these weapons. Companies made profit on these items whose sole purpose is to kill and injure civilians. Cluster bombs do not pierce tanks. Do not do any great damage to buildings (especially if they're fortified ones). The question I did not ask myself earlier about why Laos is still obviously a developing country has been answered. These people, especially in rural areas, risk death and severe injuries on a regular basis to do the daily activities required to make a living. Tilling the fields, staking a buffalo to pasture, getting scrap metal to sell, playing in the fields as children...all could end in a loud bang and loss of life, limbs, sight. Even road building, or indeed, any kind of construction is a far lengthier and expensive process because of the huge amounts of UXO covering vast swathes of the country. Makes you think, doesn't it?
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