 |
|
|
|
Meet a remarkable international group of people whose lives have been forever changed by bombies.
Betty Kasdorf, Laos country director, Mennonite Central Committee
The Mennonites first came to Laos in 1975, trying to help rebuild a devastated country. Their first priority was to help people grow more food, but unexploded bombs were killing thousands of people, mostly farmers who traditionally tilled their land by striking the ground with a hoe. The Quakers and Mennonites distributed thousands of shovels, providing a gentler way to turn the earth, but people were still dying. So the pacifists decided to call in the professionals.
Rae McGrath, co-laureate, Nobel Peace Prize, 1997
A demolition expert with the British Army, McGrath decided to quit soldiering after seeing the devastation brought about by landmines. While in Afghanistan working with United Nations mine clearance operations, he came upon the body of a young boy who bled to death after his foot had been blown off by a landmine. While standing over the body of the boy, he decided to found the Mines Advisory Group, a British humanitarian de-mining organization that teaches Laotian villagers to be demolition experts.
Nyommala, villager and bomb disposal trainee
She decided to volunteer for the job after her uncle was killed when his hoe hit an unexploded bombie.
Paul Stanford, senior technical advisor, Mines Advisory Group
Stanford helps villagers who have discovered a 500-pound American air-dropped bomb. Stanford explains how cluster bombs work and the devastation they can cause.
Lee Thorn, U.S. Navy, 1964-1966
During the Vietnam War, Thorn loaded cluster bombs on U.S. planes destined for missions over Laos. Another of his duties was to show pilots films of the bombings, images he was unable to forget. After 32 years of suffering post-traumatic stress, Thorn decided to do something. He established the Jhai (Laotian word for "heart and minds working together") Foundation, which brings medical supplies to Lao hospitals and schools.
Dr. Bouavan, the first woman surgeon in the history of Laos
Bouavan's mother and grandparents were killed by American bombs. Today she works in the trauma ward of a remote hospital with only five hours of electricity a day, where she sees more than a hundred bombie victims a year.
Sopha, a local blacksmith
He beats swords into plowshares, using metal from American bombs. Proclaiming the metal he retrieves from ordnance lying around his village to be of superior quality, Sopha uses his forge to create knives, hoes, diggers, shovels and anvils. In Sopha's house we see a cluster bomb turned into a lamp, a pot stand made from rifle shells, and bowls and spoons made from metal bombs.
Martin Dunn, deputy director, Consortium Laos
Dunn organizes children's art workshops about bombies. Together with the Mennonites, Consortium Laos has introduced a curriculum into Lao schools to teach students about the dangers of unexploded ordnance, and to instruct them as to what they should do if they spot bombies.
Marv Davidov, anti-cluster bomb activist
Arrested 41 times, Davidov organized a group of protesters against the Minneapolis-based Honeywell Corporation, formerly the largest manufacturer of cluster bombs. He continues to work against the use of cluster bombs today.
Fred Branfman, an American teacher who exposed the secret war to the U.S. Congress and helped stop the bombings
Branfman was working as an educational advisor for the U.S. government in Laos, when, in September 1969, thousands of refugees flooded into the Laotian capital of Vientiane. Working as a translator for international media, Branfman began to interpret thousands of villagers' stories, telling of planes dropping bombs. Told by U.S. officials in Laos that Americans had nothing to do with the bombs, Branfman became consumed with the desire to understand what was happening. Gathering details, he journeyed to Washington and spoke at a special session of the U.S. Senate Committee on Refugees, exposing the U.S. government's covert activities.
Buon Kham, a farmer
Kham tells of how 400 villagers lived in Phieu Cave in northern Laos in order to escape the bombs which rained on them day and night. U.S. fighter pilots flew in low and delivered a bomb, which went straight to the rear of the cave. Exploding into a fireball, the bomb created heat so intense that no one could enter the cave for three days. Four hundred seventy-three men, women and children were killed, including Kham's wife and three daughters.
|
|
|
