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US bombs killed or injured 50,000 in Laos
Unexploded bombs dropped on Laos by the US military during the Indochina War have killed or injured around 50 000 people since the mid-1960s, state media reported today.
Lao Deputy Prime Minister Lieutenant General Douangchay Phichit said unexploded ordnance killed or injured an estimated 50 000 people between 1964 and 2007 and at least another 480 people between 2008 and 2009, the Vientiane Times reported.
The government in 2008 launched a survey of 8 477 villages still affected by unexploded bombs, the results of which are due to be presented to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane from November 9-12.
It is estimated that around 80 million of the 270 million cluster bomblets US forces used on Laos during the Indochina War failed to explode.
Between 1964 and 1973, US warplanes dropped more than 2 million tons of ordnance on Laos, making the country the most heavily bombed per capita in history.