80 million unexploded bombs: Obama pledges U.S. help for Laos
Declaring a “moral obligation” to heal the wounds of a secret war, President Barack Obama on Tuesday pledged help to clear away the 80 million unexploded bombs the United States dropped on Laos a generation ago – more than 10 for every one of the country’s 7 million people.
Half a century ago, the United States turned Laos into history’s most heavily bombed country, raining down some 2 million tons of ordnance in a covert, nine-year chapter of the Vietnam War. Obama – the first president to set foot in Laos while in office – lamented that many Americans remain unaware of the “painful legacy” left behind by a bombardment that claims lives and limbs to this day.
“The remnants of war continue to shatter lives here in Laos,” Obama said before an audience of students, businessmen and orange-robed Buddhist monks who held up cellphones to snap photos of the American president. “Even as we continue to deal with the past, our new partnership is focused on the future,” he said.
To that end, Obama announced the United States would double its spending on bomb-clearing efforts to $90 million over three years – a relatively small sum in U.S. terms but a significant investment for a small country in one of the poorer corners of the world. Obama plans to put a human face on the issue when he meets Wednesday in Vientiane with survivors of bombs that America dropped.
The president did not come to apologize. Instead, he called the conflict a reminder that “whatever the cause, whatever our intentions, war inflicts a terrible toll – especially on innocent men, women and children.”
Thanks to global cleanup efforts, casualties from tennis ball-sized “bombies” that still litter the Laotian countryside have plummeted from hundreds to dozens per year. But aid groups say far more help is needed. Of all the provinces in landlocked Laos, only one has a comprehensive system to care for bomb survivors.
“We’re incredibly proud of the progress the sector has made over the last five years in terms of the decline in casualties and new victims,” said Channapha Khamvongsa of the nonprofit Legacies of War. “But we are concerned about the upwards of 15,000 survivors around the country that are still in need of support.”
The $90 million to clean up bombs joins another $100 million the United States has committed in the past 20 years. The Lao government, meanwhile, says it will boost efforts to recover remains and account for Americans missing since the war.
The punishing air campaign on Laos was an effort to cut off communist forces in neighboring Vietnam. American warplanes dropped more explosives on this Southeast Asian nation than on Germany and Japan combined in World War II, a stunning statistic that Obama noted during his first day in Vientiane.
Rep. Costa says trip honors vets
U.S. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said Obama’s journey helps honor the Lao and Hmong veterans who supported the United States during the war.
“The president’s visit to Laos reminds us of the Hmong and Lao individuals that served as part of the Special Guerrilla Units and fought shoulder-to-shoulder with American soldiers during the Vietnam War,” Costa said in a statement.
Costa has introduced legislation that would allow Hmong and Lao American veterans to be buried in national cemeteries.
“Their service saved American lives, and the estimated 6,000 Hmong and Lao veterans and their families living in the United States today deserve special recognition,” he said. “They have made great sacrifices for the United States, and we must never forget them.”
Merced’s Hmong population of about 7,254 is the third largest in the state, according to the 2010 U.S. census.
Obama was one of several world leaders visiting Laos to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting. Taking its turn as chair of the regional forum, Laos’ communist government is seizing a rare moment in the spotlight.
For Obama, the visit serves as a capstone to his years-long effort to bolster relations with Southeast Asian countries long overlooked by the United States. The outreach is a core element of his attempt to shift U.S. diplomatic and military resources away from the Middle East and into Asia in order to counter China in the region and ensure a U.S. foothold in growing markets.
Obama to meet wife of missing activist
A top aide to the president said Tuesday that Obama will meet with the wife of a missing Laotian activist, whose case has been repeatedly highlighted by human rights groups as an example of authoritarian excesses of Laos’ one-party communist government.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama will meet Thursday with Shui Meng Ng.
Human rights activists are hoping that Obama will speak about Ng’s husband, Sombath Somphone, who was picked up apparently by security forces on Dec. 15, 2012. He has not been seen since.
Sombath’s disappearance was captured on a traffic video camera, in which he is seen being stopped at a police outpost in Vientiane and asked to step out of his vehicle, according to Amnesty International. Within a few minutes, a man on a motorcycle arrives, drives away Sombath’s vehicle, and a pickup truck takes Sombath away with armed people on a motorcycle leading the way.
The human rights group said it believes the authorities are either directly responsible for his disappearance, or have simply failed to take steps to find out what happened to him.
The U.S.-educated Sombath mostly worked in rural development, showing farmers creative ways to raise fish and make handicrafts. But he was also vocal about land deals that left thousands of villagers homeless without compensation, sparking rare political protests. He also had international connections.
The Merced Sun-Star staff contributed to this report.
This story was originally published September 6, 2016 at 4:33 PM with the headline "80 million unexploded bombs: Obama pledges U.S. help for Laos."