Australia and the Laos tragedy

Laos, a country of about 6 million people, lost about a third of its population between 1965 and 1975 through bombing carried out by the USA without the knowledge or consent of the US parliament or people. Sandwiched between Vietnam and Thailand and the size of Britain, more bombs were dropped on Laos than were dropped by the allies worldwide in WWII: roughly 100 bombs per person. About a third of these bombs did not explode and lie waiting, hidden in the ground for footsteps of farmers, villagers or children, still killing and maiming 40 years later, and into the foreseeable future. Around 10,000 people have been killed or lost limbs in this way since the end of the war. This is in an a country where the people rely on subsistence agriculture, and risk losing their legs to feed themselves and their families.

Many of these bombs were cluster bombs: cases containing up to 300 'bombies' that open in the sky and rain down indiscriminately across the landscape. The world agreed in the Geneva Convention not to target civilians and doing so is war crime under international law, but in a subsistence society that is exactly who is 'targeted' by cluster bombs. There is now a treaty banning cluster bombs which has been signed by most countries including Australia but not by USA, Israel, Russia or China. However, in order to pass into international law the treaty needs to be ratified by another 5 countries. Australia has not ratified the treaty.

Australia was complicit in the USA's war in Laos. As in USA this involvement was without the explicit consent of parliament or the Australian people. But unlike the USA, that involvement has never been acknowledged. This is important because Laos continues to be devastated by the legacy of a war whose brutality was not tempered by the public scrutiny typical of official wars. Australia assisted with the supply of weapons, circumventing international controls on chemical weapons and the use of weapons in illegal wars. Special forces were deployed in Laos on assassination missions and assistance was provided in construction of airfields used for bombing raids.

If Australia were to acknowledge its contribution to the devastation of Laos it would be more apparent that we ought to be contributing to the rebuilding of the society. Australia has made contributions in Laos, particularly in building or rebuilding bridges and small water and rural income generating projects through NGOs and the private sector. But unexploded ordnance remain a major obstacle to progress. The cost ratios form a deadly equation. It may cost dollars to drop a bomb, but it will cost thousands to clear it and hundreds of thousand to the people affected. This is an equation that should be born in mind in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the ANZ bank continues to invest in the production of cluster bombs and Australia continues to stockpile them.

So, what can be done? A good start would be the official acknowledgement of Australia's role including telling the story in the Australian War Memorial. Admission of responsibility could be backed up with an assessment of the contribution made by Australia with a reasonable calculation of the contribution to rebuilding that is commensurate with the damage caused. Australia should ratify the cluster bombs treaty, destroy its stockpile and encourage other nations to do the same. And there should be official policy to avoid companies which are involved in this deadly business.


Cost of mine:$3-30
Clearing: $1000-2000
Cost to the people: $100,000s?

View from the end of the world

Well, I certainly haven't been keeping this blog up to date. I went and worked in tiger conservation in Laos and somehow couldn't face going back to wait for the end of the world in Australia. So I looked for a place where I could do conservation and Willy could do peace and settled on Monteverde, Costa Rica. We've been here about 3 months and it's beautiful, but I still can't get over that sinking, living-on-the-titanic feeling. Also, like any haves/have nots society, it's pretty insecure. There's heaps of break-ins and people lock their stuff in the safe every time they go out. And you can buy guns from camping shops in San Jose. When the shit hits the fan this isn't going to be a very safe place to be.

I haven't figured out what to do here either. I tried volunteering at a couple of places but they really didn't know what to do with me. The problem with being the product of a big, modern, industrial society is that only big, modern industrial societies need the sort of stuff I can do. Doing menial tasks for people that don't really want them done will take some adjustment of motivational factors, especially when getting to work involves a steep 10km hike and no money. Maybe I need to get off my ass and do my own thing. But what's worth doing when the world's about to end?