Lao PDR (Mines Advisory Group)

Asian Studies Review, 2018

Laos was drawn into the Second Indochina War, making the country the most heavily bombed country on earth. Although the war ended more than four decades ago, unexploded ordnance (UXO) continues to kill and injure civilians. In many provinces UXO constitutes the major hindrance to socioeconomic development and obstacle to local people earning a decent living. The aim of this article is to examine the ways in which local people have developed livelihood strategies to survive in dangerous environments through the lens of sustainable livelihood perspectives. This article argues that livelihood improvements in Xieng Khouang Province should be characterised as a bottom-up phenomenon. UXO is still a major concern for the government and local people with respect to achieving development objectives. As the financial resources for UXO clearance are limited, education is a powerful tool for creating awareness of UXO risks among local people. The research suggests that more resources should be mobilised to deal with UXO problems.

2002

2009

Over thirty-four years since the 1960-1975 Second Indochina War, Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) continues to inhibit a multitude of development priorities in Laos. One of only three remaining Least Developed Countries in Southeast Asia, greater understanding of the socio-economic effects of UXO is crucial to the development of Laos. Drawing on three weeks of field work in June 2009, primarily composed of semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation and literature analysis, this thesis examines the effects of UXO alongside an analysis of how existing responses to UXO contamination in Laos may be improved. Furthermore, it is argued in this thesis that discrepancies over the perceived seriousness of UXO contamination exist between humanitarian operators and those who lived in contaminated districts. In examining the effects of UXO contamination on the consolidation of post-conflict development, the analysis offered highlights the need for greater understanding of this legacy of w...

2005

In 2003, at the request of the European Parliament, the Commission tasked UNIDIR to undertake the project European Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons and Explosive Remnants of War with the purpose of offering suggestions as to how the European Union might deploy the full range of its capabilities in ways that enhance overall effectiveness in actions relating to small arms and explosive remnants of war. The project was supported through the generosity of the European Union and the Government of the United Kingdom.

2018

This work is partly supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research #16H05704.

2020

ABSTRACT: In this article nongovernmental organization (NGO) workers Channapha Khamvongsa and Elaine Russell discuss the massive illegal U.S. bombing of Laos between 1964 and 1973 and its lingering human, economic, and ecological toll. They survey the history of foreign intervention in Laos, with special emphasis on the cold war-era civil war and U.S. intervention. The authors describe continuing civilian casualties and obstacles to development posed by unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos, and detail current efforts for UXO removal. The authors propose a formal reconciliation process between the United States and Laos in which the U.S. government would accept responsibility for the long-term effects of the bombing and the governments would cooperate with NGOs and the United Nations in a transparent process to fund UXO removal. More than thirty-five years ago the U.S. government inflicted a tragic injustice on the people of Laos, an injustice that has never been fully acknowledged or r...

2004

In 1991, new weapons were used for the first time by the American and British troops in Iraq. These weapons proved to have high destructive capability against armored machinery and tanks. Later, there were many signs of being a weapon to destroy the human beings, animals and plants, which raised huge controversy and sharp criticism among scientists, doctors and environmentalists. Despite the opacity and deception, many of the secrets of depleted uranium ammunition were exposed, and confirmed the seriousness of use and serious repercussions on the environment and public health, which stepped up the international campaign against its manufacturing and use. However, the brilliant military success and profits of the military industry tempted the Pentagon and NATO to continue production and use of these weapons. Despite the high human and environment risks DU was used in various conflicts like Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia, Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon and recently in Libya. It is noteworthy to mention that the public and even some scientists, researchers and news media are ignorant of the effects and risks of the use of DU in military operations. This raises the point that there should be a large campaign to raise public awareness to prevent the risk of DU weapons. Based on scientific research and updates, we would like to high light the waste of wars in Iraq: Our paper shed the light on the size of depleted uranium(DU) weapons used in the wars on Iraq and the legacy of waste (their nature, size, and the contaminated regions), as high risks on humans and the environment. This is one of the leading environmental, health and social tragic problems in Iraq. This problem should be addressed immediately, seriously and effectively.

In 1991, new weapons were used for the first time by the American and British troops in Iraq. These weapons proved to have high destructive capability against armored machinery and tanks. Later, there were many signs of being a weapon to destroy the human beings, animals and plants, which raised huge controversy and sharp criticism among scientists, doctors and environmentalists. Despite the opacity and deception, many of the secrets of depleted uranium ammunition were exposed, and confirmed the seriousness of use and serious repercussions on the environment and public health, which stepped up the international campaign against its manufacturing and use. However, the brilliant military success and profits of the military industry tempted the Pentagon and NATO to continue production and use of these weapons. Despite the high human and environment risks DU was used in various conflicts like Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia, Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon and recently in Libya. It is noteworthy to mention that the public and even some scientists, researchers and news media are ignorant of the effects and risks of the use of DU in military operations. This raises the point that there should be a large campaign to raise public awareness to prevent the risk of DU weapons. Based on scientific research and updates, we would like to high light the waste of wars in Iraq: Our paper shed the light on the size of depleted uranium(DU) weapons used in the wars on Iraq and the legacy of waste (their nature, size, and the contaminated regions), as high risks on humans and the environment. This is one of the leading environmental, health and social tragic problems in Iraq. This problem should be addressed immediately, seriously and effectively.

Security Dialogue, 2024

This article develops the idea that late modern war’s relationship with the geos (the ground and the life it sustains) is doubly destructive. While part of this is recognized in a recent focus on slow violence and ecological aftermaths, there is little consideration of the ‘beforemath’, or the sites of extraction that make advanced military technologies possible. Drawing attention to mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the article connects military technologies to arms manufacturers and their use of extracted minerals (e.g. cobalt, tantalum, copper, uranium). Shared patterns of environmental and public health effects across parts of Iraq, Gaza and the DRC indicate the doubly destructive nature of late modern war’s relationship with the geos: toxic materials threaten life after war as the deposits of bombardment and before war as mineral commodities at the beginning of arms supply chains. The article explicates how a perspective from the beforemath radically refigures the ways we think about war and spatiality, temporality, and the range of bodies affected in ways that promise a fuller understanding of the violence distributed by practices of late modern war.