Mine Awareness Day

Mine Awareness Day and the Lone Buffalo Foundation

Is it a petanque ball or a mine?

The purpose of this post is to draw your attention to the UN International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action which falls this year on Friday 4th April 2014 and to the Lone Buffalo Foundation in Phonsavan. I hope the connection will become clearer later in the post.
Click here for Mine Awareness Day 
Click here for the Lone Buffalo Foundation

On Jon Witsell’s website there is (or soon will be) a short video in which Jon and I were about 30km west of Phonsavan, near the village of Pong Hor, standing on a hillside which was the site of gun emplacements during the American Secret War. Minefields were laid around the hill to protect the emplacements and connecting trenches from ground attack. Five hills near Pong Hor and the neighbouring village of Ban Xai were mined and 2 have been cleared by the Mines Victims and Clearance Trust, an Australian non-government organisation funded entirely by donation.

On the other 3 hills there remains a risk that cattle will be blown up by mines. Furthermore, there is a risk of death or maiming to the villagers themselves if they go into the mined areas to collect their cattle. If they wished to turn the field over to cultivation of the very popular Hill or “Sticky” Rice, the use of agricultural tools exposes the villagers to severe risk of death or injury from striking a mine.

The issue in Lao PDR is not just mines, there is unexploded ordnance (UXO) dropped from aircraft or fired from guns and just lying in the ground randomly. Between 1965 and 1973 during the American Secret War, 580,000 US bombing missions were conducted over Laos which is equivalent to one bombing mission every eight minutes, 24 hours a day. The data show that Cluster Bomb Units (CBU) containing 260 million bomblets (called “bombies” by the Lao) were dropped on Laos and, of these, 30% failed to explode. Therefore, from this source alone, there are thought to be 80 million items of UXO. Then there are the heavy bombs, mortar rounds, artillery rounds, and grenades.

Clearing UXO costs from US$2,000 per hectare to as much as US$10,000/hectare. In a mine field the mines were deliberately buried with the intention that they should not be found. An added problem is that mines can be made of materials like plastic that make them hard to detect. Clearing a mine field costs, conservatively, ten times as much per hectare as clearing UXO.

According to the National Regulatory Authority of Lao PDR, cluster bombs account for the majority of UXO dropped on Laos and current clearance rates show that annually 'bombies' make up roughly 50% of the UXO being cleared. Additionally, in the last decade 30% of UXO accidents in Laos were caused by cluster bombs.

Cluster Bomb Display at COPE

The photograph above was taken of a CBU display at COPE in Vientiane (more later) and the two clamshell sides and tail cone of the CBU can be seen as though they had just parted (by small explosive charge) and the bombies are falling randomly to the ground. There are many types of bombie - here is information on three found in the Plain of Jars (courtesy of www.designation-systems.net).

Bomb Live Unit (BLU)/3 "Pineapple"

BLU/3 "Pineapple"

 

BLU/3 (left) and BLU/42 halves

The Bomb Live Unit (BLU)/3 "Pineapple" was a fragmentation bomblet for use against personnel and unarmoured targets. After release from the CBU aerial dispenser, the bomblet was stabilized by six pop-out drag vanes. It detonated on impact and dispersed 250 high-velocity steel pellets which can be clearly seen cast into the wall.  Length: 95mm (3.75 in); with vanes extended: 170mm (6.7 in).  Diameter: 70mm (2.75 in).  Weight: 790g (1.75 lb).  Explosive: 160g (0.35 lb) RDX.

The BLU-26/B "Guava"

 

BLU/26B (Picture: NRA of Lao PDR)

  

The BLU-26/B "Guava" is the most common UXO in the Plain of Jars and was an air-dispensed APAM (anti-personnel/anti-material) fragmentation bomblet containing 600 embedded steel fragments with a lethal range of 12m (40feet). The BLU-26/B had three different fusing options. It could detonate immediately on impact, as an airburst 9 m (30 ft) above ground or after a selectable but fixed time after impact. Like the BLU42 (below) it is centrifugally armed. In the ground impact version any slowing of the spin rate detonates the bombie. Therefore, it was used in forested areas when the enemy could not be seen but were believed to be beneath the trees. The bombie’s rate of spin would decelerate as it hit the canopy of the trees and effectively become an airburst. The externally identical BLU-36/B and BLU-59/B had random-delay fuses so that people entering the area to help the wounded after the first explosions would also be injured by subsequent explosions or would leave the wounded unattended for fear of the delayed fused bombies. Diameter: 64mm (2.5 in).  Weight: 435g (0.95 lb).  Explosive: 85g (0.19 lb) Cyclotol.

BLU-42/B"Spider"

BLU/42 Exterior

BLU42 Interior

The ball-like object above and being held by the child in the photos and videos on Jon’s websites is a BLU-42/B WAAPM (Wide-Area Anti-Personnel Mine also known as a "spider"). It is an anti-personnel fragmentation minelet. It was fitted with several surface and trip-wire sensors for detonation, an anti-tampering device and some (presumably not Jon's) had a self-destruct system. The flutes or vanes on the outside of the casing cause the bombie to spin as it falls and it is armed by centrifugal force. After it hits the ground 8 trip-wires spring out of the holes hence the nick name "spider". These days, 40 years on, the wires have usually rusted away but the bombies often remain “live”. Diameter: 60mm (2.38 in), Weight: 500g (1.1 lb), Explosive: 71g (0.15 lb) Composition-B.

The Cluster Bomb Unit

 The Cluster Bomb Unit CBU2B/A carried 409 BLU-3/B bombies, the CBU24 carried 665 BLU 26/B bombies and the CBU-34/A carried 540 BLU-42/B bombies. In an earlier post you will see CBU clamshells being put to various uses. Here’s another - CBU fence posts.

CBU clamshells as wall posts

What's The problem? 

Map of bombing targets in Xieng Khouang Province. Phonsavan is in the middle of the red just south of where it says "Pek"

On 24 December 2012 Lao PDR Deputy Prime Minister Asang Laoly stated that between 1996 and 2012, more than 31,000 hectares had been cleared and the total UXO identified and demolished during surface clearing now totals over 1.3 million items. Laos still has more than 87,000 square kilometres (8,700,000 hectares) UXO contaminated land to be cleared.

Currently, the National Unexploded Ordnance Programme (UXO Lao) employs teams of 22 people to clear one hectare of land each month. But even using many teams they can only clear 5,000 hectares each year.

At present, Laos receives about US$30 million in financial support each year. By 2020 the Lao government aims to have cleared UXO from 200,000 hectares of land.

COPE

In Vientiane is the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) where they build and fit orthotics and prosthetics for mine and UXO victim survivors. They do the same work for all people who need their services, for example, people injured in motor bike accidents or those born with birth defects like club foot. According to the National Regulatory Authority for the UXO/Mine Action Sector in the Lao PDR (NRA) over the last decade: 

• There are approximately 300 new casualties annually
• Accidents caused by cluster bombs rose to 30%
• 40% of casualties are children.

 

Polypropylene is replacing leather, aluminium and wood

You would think everyone in Lao PDR would be aware of the UXO/mine problem and that may be the case but I suppose when one lives with the problem, familiarity breeds contempt. I’ll give you an example. The Hmong sister of a friend of mine was clearing land that they had recently bought so that they could build a house. During the work one weekend she came across a bombie. She picked it up and threw it away. When I expressed my horror to my friend he said that people often throw them into lakes or wedge them into trees. At least in a lake or a tree it can’t be stepped on!

Another issue is that bombies are attractive to children as toys. The French game Petanque or Boules is very popular in Lao PDR and, presumably, many children see their fathers throwing the metal balls. Unfortunately, as can be seen from the photo at the top of this Post and below, bombies and petanque balls are very similar.

Click here to read the story of Pheng and her children

The temptation for children to play with bombies or other UXO and the relatively casual disdain with which some adults treat UXO are a real risk for all outside the immediate confines of urban areas of Lao PDR. In other cases, farmers in Lao PDR may know their land is contaminated but can’t afford another plot. They simply have no choice but to cultivate their land.

It will take many decades to clear all the mines and UXO in the Lao PDR at the present rate of clearance. The Mines Victims and Clearance Trust (MiVAC) cleared the mines from the first 2 hills at Pong Hor but until MiVAC receives donations to de-mine the other 3, in fact, until all of the other mines and UXO in Lao PDR are cleared, what can be done? 

Education must be the key.

Education is an investment. In the more developed countries many students don’t appreciate and don’t take full advantage of comprehensive, free education.

The Lone Buffalo Foundation (LBF) in Phonsavan, Xieng Khouang Province takes children and young adults who want to be educated, who want to make that investment in themselves. These people have made the connection between education and a route out of poverty.

The LBF also teaches football which is valuable not only for the health benefits and team ethos that accrue but also for the improved concentration and stress relief that exercise brings. Football education complements academic education.

As part of the education at the LBF students are taught an awareness of the dangers of UXO and mines. If the land is not safe to walk on, at least the students can be taught how to avoid some of the risks.

Education leads to a healthier lifestyle, longer lifespan, gaining a better job, being more productive and earning a higher income. Education leads to poverty reduction. More importantly, in the case of the LBF education could also, literally, save their lives.

The LBF teachers are volunteers. So are the administrators. The whole operation is run on donations of money, time and skill.  

I make no apology if some of the information in this post is a little blunt. The people of the Lao PDR and, in particular, around Phonsavan in the Plain of Jars deal with these matters routinely in their lives - there are still 50 people per year killed by mines/UXO in Lao PDR. Friday 4th April 2014 is UN International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. Please consider donating to Jon’s fund raiser for the LBF,

Click here for the Plain of Jars Project

Thank you