Women dancing in streets

Music

00:00

Sara sits with women

00:12

Rocket launch

00:18

Women dancing

SARA: It's the one day of the year, when almost anything goes - no questions asked. There's plenty of beer and cheer.

00:25

Rockets on trucks

It's called Bun Bang Fai, "the Rocket Festival".

00:33

Rocket launch from scaffold

00:39

SARA:  Homemade bamboo rockets are primed and launched into the clouds. The locals hope they will bring rain for the cropping season ahead, but behind the celebrations, Laos has a past that few people know.

00:43

Mountains

Music

01:02

SARA: The serrated mountains almost bite into the sky. They look untouchable. We're on our way to Xieng Khouang province.

01:14

Travelling to Xieng Khouang

01:23

This landscape hides a terrible secret. Laos is the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in the world. During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped two million tonnes of bombs on this tiny country. 

COLETTE MCINERNEY: "It is extraordinary.

01:28

McInerney

I can't imagine living in that. I can't imagine living through that".

01:47

Music

01:50

Archival. Bombing raids

SARA: This is what rained from the skies - cluster bombs - large shells containing hundreds of smaller bombs. The US dropped 260 million of these on Laos.

01:55

Music

02:10

Map Vietnam

SARA:  The target was the Ho Chi Minh trail, the supply route for communist forces in neighbouring Vietnam.

02:22

Archival. Bombing raids

It was someone else's war, officially Laos wasn't even involved, but its land and its people were blown to pieces. 

02:28

02:37

Sara to camera in front of house

"The bombing was so widespread here in Laos that the remnants of the attacks have just become part of daily life. These are shell casings which were used to hold some of the cluster bombs, but the numbers behind this bombing campaign are still staggering. It was the equivalent of one bombing mission every eight minutes for nine years. One way to get your head around it is to think that in the time that it will take you to watch this program, the people of Laos would have been bombed four times".

02:45

Farmer ploughing rice field

03:16

The countryside looks peaceful now, but there's still danger. Imagine what it's like to be a farmer here, ploughing and planting land that's contaminated by bombs. Up to 30% of the munitions dropped on Laos didn't detonate. That means there are up to 80 million bomblets in the soil that can explode at any time. 

03:22

Sara holding cluster bomb

"This is what the tiny cluster bombs look like. This one's has been made safe so that I can handle it. You can see that they are only about the size of a tennis ball, but they're deadly and the thing that's really frightening about those that haven't exploded, is that when they are on the ground, they are incredibly difficult to see".

03:48

Sara with McInerney in village. McInerney visits Tier Keomanyseng

The families of this remote village live and farm with that danger every day.  Australian aid worker, Colette McInerney is here to help one of the victims. 

COLETTE MCINERNEY: [World Education, Laos] "In Lao culture, particularly in the more remote communities where accidents tend to happen, it is

04:08

sometimes considered bad luck and then that person is shunned a little bit by his or her family and by their village and community as well.

04:32

McInerney. Super:
Colette McInerney
World Education, Laos

So that is quite a profound impact on a person as well so they want to provide a one on one approach to the survivor and then some assistance with the family as well". 

04:42

McInerney with Tier Keomanyseng

SARA: This is where Tier Keomanyseng spends his days now. He wasn't born until after the war ended, but it's still ripped his life apart. Just 18 months ago, he lost his sight and both his hands when a cluster bomb exploded while he was working in the fields. 

04:57

TIER KEOMANYSENG: "Then I knew nothing. I didn't remember anything at all. I didn't feel anything".

05:24

Onh Keomanyseng 

ONH KEOMANYSENG: "I didn't even recognise him, his face was all covered in blood. I heard the explosion, so I went there". 

05:33

COLETTE MCINERNEY: "It's not just the wife and that family, but it's also the others in the household

05:47

that are affected by that. So it means that a poor family for example, is then put into more poverty because there is no one in the household that can earn an income".

05:53

Stills. Tier in hospital

SARA: In the weeks after the accident, Tier started losing hope. He'd been transformed from a fit young farmer to an amputee who was unable to see and completely dependent on his family. He even thought about ending his life. 

06:04

Tier and Onh

TIER KEOMANYSENG: "I had no idea what to do next. I just had to fight with a brave heart. I just took it day by day". 

06:27

McInerney

COLETTE MCINERNEY: "It can be very, very traumatic and people can go inside themselves; they don't want to talk to anyone about it". 

06:38

Tier and Onh

TIER KEOMANYSENG: "I tried to accept it. I tried to think clearly. I have to keep going. I feel that I have more hope now". 

06:46

SARA: "What do you think about the Americans who dropped these bombies on Laos and what do you think about what they did?"

07:01

TIER KEOMANYSENG: "I don't have hard feelings. It has already happened to me, all I can do is to maintain a brave heart and to remain calm. I have to keep fighting. It's already happened, what else can I do?"

07:10

Tier outside house

SARA: But the reality of his maimed body is still sinking in. 

TIER KEOMANYSENG: "Yes... I feel like... yeah, I was just dreaming. Sometimes I feel that my hands are still there, and I try to touch my face with my hand

07:27

Tier and Onh walk

then I realise I no longer have arms or hands". 

07:53

Landscape GVs/Bomb hunting team

Music

08:00

SARA: Now a special band of women is going where others fear to tread. Their job is to find and destroy unexploded bombs.

08:14

Music

08:24

Phou Vong working on team

SARA: Phou Vong joined the bomb hunting team three years ago. She desperately needed a job after her husband was killed in a road accident. 

PHOU VONG: "My husband died and left me with the children.

08:37

There was no-one to help me, but myself. Everything was my responsibility and I had no money to support my children's education".

08:50

SARA: Phou Vong and her colleagues earn $250 a month - better than the average wage in Laos. It's a special empowerment program to give much needed opportunities to local women. But for many of them, the biggest. 

09:03

reward was finding their first bomb

PHOU VONG : "I was excited as well as frightened. I hesitated a bit, but I thought I should be glad to see it, because in a sense, I was helping my people". 

09:21

Landscape

Music

09:40

Bomb team search

SARA: The women are searching an area the size of two football ovals. They've already found almost 200 cluster bomblets here. Within minutes they find two more. 

09:45

Bomblet on ground

Music

09:59

SARA:  "It's very, very hard to see isn't it? It looks like nothing".

MAN BOMB CLEARER: "Yes, it looks like nothing.

10:02

Like a stone or something. They will prepare to blow this one up before the team leave today".

10:06

SARA: You can see the bomblet just to the left of the red marker. It's barely visible after more than 40 years of rust and dust and rain.

10:13

It's too dangerous to move so the women will use explosives to blow it up. 

10:23

TEAM LEADER: "Sister, you should all follow the points I have instructed. The first sentry, Ms Nok, you are to announce from here towards the Command Post". 

10:30

Women prepare to blow up bomblet

Music

10:37

Phou gives warning over hailer

PHOU VONG: [on hailer] "Attention, attention everybody! Anybody who is nearby, in the rice field or in the farm - those of you who are near our site, please take your children to go and hide somewhere safe". 

10:41

Searching for bombs with metal detector

SARA: It's taken all day just to get rid of two bombs. There are still almost 80 million just like them across Laos, yet to be cleared. It's a job which will take a lifetime. 

11:03

Phou

PHOU VONG: "Oh, I am this old now - if the project continues non-stop until I get old, maybe it will be cleared. But if we only do this for a few more years, and then stop through lack of funding, I don't think the bombs will be cleared. I believe this, because there's so many of them".

11:17

Women walk with bomb detection gear

SARA: "How strong are Lao women?"

PHOU VONG : "We Lao women are now equal to men in terms of working.

11:38

When the job is hard, we take the time and we try to do our best work". 

11:49

Women packing track

SARA: The women are heading back to the dormitories where they all live together, far from their families. 

12:01

They now make up more than 40 per cent of the clearance teams in Xieng Khouang province. Sometimes they wonder why they are risking their lives and sacrificing time with their children, when it was the Americans who dropped the bombs here.

12:12

PHOU VONG : "Well, if we want to clear these bombs, I'd like them to continue to support more than they've done so far. This is not enough, because there are really a lot of bombs".

12:31

Channapha

CHANNAPHA KHAMVONGSA: "When I was growing up people used to ask, you know, where I was from and when I used to say Laos, they would usually say, where is that? Is that a part of China? Is that in Thailand? So, the country is not really well known".

12:51

Water/Capitol Building. Super: WASHINGTON D.C.

Music

13:05

Channapha walks in Washington

SARA: Channapha Khamvongsa is a Lao American who spends her life lobbying the US Government for more funding to clear the bombs. She says very few Americans know that their country rained so much destruction on Laos. 

13:15

Super:
Channapha Khamvongsa
Exec. Director, Legacies of War

CHANNAPHA KHAMVONGSA: [Exec. Director, Legacies of War] "I think often times they are shocked at the severity of this history, that is so unknown. You know it's not in their history books. It's not something they study".

13:30

Archival and Stills. US bombing missions. Vietnam War

13:41

SARA: It was called the secret war. The US carried out the bombing missions, despite signing an agreement to respect the neutrality of Laos. Even the US Congress didn't know it was happening. 

13:48

Channapha

CHANNAPHA KHAMVONGSA: "These bombs were left on the ground and in the land for a good 15 years

14:00

Pile of bomblets/Still. Bomb victim

before any real effort to remove them. And more importantly the fact that, you know, 40 years later people are still being killed and maimed". 

14:05

Music

14:15

Channapha walking. Washington

SARA: The United States still refuses to sign up to the international treaty to ban cluster bombs and it only provides limited funds to clean up those it dropped on Laos. 

14:19

Channapha

CHANNAPHA KHAMVONGSA: "Since the mid-‘90s, the US has been providing up until recently, on average about two million per year, which is really not a lot of money considering the scale of the problem". 

14:36

Washington GVs/ Channapha walking

SARA: While that figure has now increased to twelve million dollars, it's still not enough and it's not secure. Every year the lobbyists have to go back to Congress to keep the funds flowing, but they believe that in the long term, persuasion will bring better results than confrontation. It's the Lao way. 

CHANNAPHA KHAMVONGSA: "We are providing people an opportunity

14:49

Channapha

to do the right thing and when there is so much wrong in the world today, who doesn't want to do the right thing and to do something that is solvable, that we can work towards addressing and that we can eventually solve. This is so solvable".

15:13

Sara with McInerney at school

SARA: Back in Laos, the focus is also on the future. The students of Chomthong School turn on a big welcome. Most of their parents weren't born when the war ended, but they have inherited the danger. 

15:29

COLETTE MCINERNEY: "So I guess we utilise children if you like to have those lessons at school and

15:49

McInerney. Super:
Colette McInerney
World Education, Laos

to take those lessons home and share it, share it with their family so that they understand the dangers of going out into fields,

15:54

Children perform puppet show

particularly if they know or are aware that, you know, that field over there could be contaminated with UXOs so please don't go out there".

LYRICS OF SONG AT PUPPET SHOW: "Be careful when you go out to play or go to work and find the food, you must remember well..."

SARA: The students are taught about the unexploded ordnance,

16:02

which are nicknamed ‘bombies'. Up to 40% of those who are killed or injured by bombies in Laos are children, mostly boys. Behind the melody is a life-saving message.

16:21

LYRICS OF SONG AT PUPPET SHOW: "If you see a bombie, do not touch it. If you see a bombie, do not touch it". 

16:34

Children in class learning about ‘bombie' danger

16:41

SARA: The danger is not just accidentally stepping on bombies, some of these kids go looking for them. The unexploded ordnance is worth big money as scrap metal, so children take the risk of hunting for bombs to support their families. 

16:48

These lessons save lives. Since 2010, the number of people killed by UXOs in Laos has dropped from an average of 300 to less than 50.

17:09

Instead of just focussing on clearing the bombs, more funding is going into education and taking care of the victims. 

17:23

COLETTE MCINERNEY: "Yeah I think it's really important. It's a conversation that needs to be had in tandem.

17:35

You can't have one without the other. You can't be talking about clearance if you're not talking about victim assistance, so I think that those two definitely go hand in hand".

17:39

Amputee bomb victims at rehab

Music

17:48

SARA: This is where the survivors come to restart their lives. It takes up to 8 weeks to walk again. It's estimated that up to 20,000 people have been killed or injured by UXOs in Laos since the end of the war. 

17:54

Music

18:12

Sengthavy. Super:
Sengthavy Manipakone
Prosthetic technician, COPE

SENGTHAVY MANIPAKONE: [Prosthetic technician, COPE] "Some people say that when they lose their leg they're saying that already they're dying... in half... or something like this. So they're not so strong in their mind, or they feel sad. They say, I cannot do that, I cannot do this". 

18:15

Amputees with prosthetic limbs

Music

18:32

SARA: Some victims in remote areas make their own prosthetic legs with whatever they can find. It's a haunting collection. Some of the amputees spend years struggling to walk on limbs like these which can make their pain even worse. 

18:40

Music

18:55

Sengthavy

SENGTHAVY MANIPAKONE: "When we see the person sad, also we feel sad with them too. But, we try the best way how we can help him to be better".

19:02

Sengthavy measuring for prosthetic

19:14

SARA: Sengthavy is one of the highly skilled prosthetic technicians. He measures down to the millimetre for a perfect fit. Kham Seng's leg was blown off by a landmine during the war in 1965. He had to wait several years before he received his first prosthetic limb.

19:22

Kham

KHAM SENG: "I felt happy. I got a leg to walk with. It's like it's giving me a new life - because now I can have a new life - a wonderful life".

19:45

Technicians making prosthetic limbs

SARA: These legs cost about $75 each to make and last for two years. The rehabilitation centre is funded by the Lao Government and foreign donors. Many of those who lived through the war hope that the rest of the world will learn from what happened here. 

20:03

Kham

KHAM SENG: "I feel sad... the fact that they dropped so many bombs on us, that damaged the lives of so many people and caused so many injuries".

20:28

Lao river

20:45

SARA: No one really knows exactly how much time and money it will take to find and destroy all the bombs. Even the government acknowledges there are no quick answers.

PHOUKHIEO CHANTHASOMBOUNE: [Government Landmine Adviser] "You know based on our current speed,

20:50

Phoukhieo. Super:
Phoukhieo Chanthasomboune
Government Landmine Advisor

it could take a hundred years to clear the land... clear the land.... all the country. You may recall that now Europe still clearing the World War II, World War I bombs. So in Lao it's more than that. It will take one or two centuries to, if it based on the current speed, the current situation".

21:05

Laos rural GVs

Music

21:34

SARA: Despite almost 20 years of bomb hunting in Laos, less than 2% of the contaminated land has been cleared.

21:48

Bomb detection team return home

It's the end of another tiring, dusty day for the female clearance team in Xieng Khouang province. Their livelihoods and their country are dependent on continued funding. They worry about the uncertainty of it all.

22:00

Phou

PHOU VONG: "If the funding is no longer there, I am afraid that we won't be able to clear them all - there are just so many of them. We've done a lot, a huge amount, but there are so many areas still to do".

22:17

Women at home at end of day

Music

22:33

SARA: The women live together, close to the minefield. They work three weeks on, one week off. There's not much space for disagreement - they know they are here for the long haul.

22:41

Phou

PHOU VONG: "Twenty days I have to work. I'm happy to do it, but it's hard on my children. The difficulty is that I have to leave them at home while I am working". 

22:52

Women at home at end of day

[At the dormitory] "Which site were you working at today?"

OTHER FEMALE WORKER: "The same one... just to finish it off".

PHOU VONG: "The one next to it, right?"

23:13

Women prepare evening meal

23:20

Phou looks at pictures of children on her phone

SARA: It's in the quiet times that Phou Vong misses her children most. She wishes she could live with them, but she knows the job of clearing bombs in Laos is far from over.

PHOU VONG: "We're here because we are poor - that's why we are deprived of our families. We're trying to earn money so we can raise our children, so we have something to eat.

23:24

Phou

That's why we must be patient. We've gone through this together and we remind ourselves to be patient".

23:49

Child walking along mountain path

23:56

SARA: The next generation is waiting for the job to be done. They need the fields to be safe so they can feed the growing population in the future. There's already a chronic shortage of land. Only 4% of the countryside is suitable for farming because Laos is so mountainous. 

24:03

24:23

Phoukhieo

PHOUKHIEO CHANTHASOMBOUNE: "That's why (we're) affected by UXO in Lao in here - not just affecting individual direct victims, but whole families and the whole community, as a whole country. So that's why government pay very, very much attention to clear the UXO". 

24:26

Buddhist temple

Music

24:46

SARA: As an outsider, the striking thing is that there's little animosity towards the United States for the decades of devastation that it caused here.

24:53

Music

25:03

SARA: Instead, the people of Laos are busy getting on with living.

25:09

Mountains

Music

25:13

Stills. Phou/Women/Tier

CHANNAPHA KHAMVONGSA: "What's remarkable about the people of Laos and what gives me so much hope is their own sense of optimism, and endurance and spirit. And perseverance,

25:19

Channapha

to be able to survive such devastating history and past but yet to overcome it with such an amazing sense of spirit, of good hearted spirit".

25:31

Mountain GVs

Music

25:46

Reporter: Sally Sara
Camera: David Martin
Editor: Garth Thomas

Executive Producer: Steve Taylor

25:55