Writer and comedian Victoria Wood made a special visit to Lao PDR to see for herself the problems the country faces with UXO (unexploded ordnance) following the Vietnam War 40 years ago. The trip was to film an appeal with the BBC.
During the trip, Victoria met and interviewed scrap metal dealer Nam, in the town of Phonsavan in the northern province of Xieng Khouang.
Victoria: When you started the scrapyard, did people always bring you UXO?
Nam: Not to start with, but then when scrap metal started to dry up, people in the rural areas looked for it [UXO].
Victoria: Was the UXO live?
Nam: Yes, a lot of it.
Victoria: What did you do with the live UXO?
Nam: When we found UXO from the villages, we wouldn't buy it. We won't pay money. But they can leave it.
Victoria: So when you found live UXO sat here, what did you do with it?
Nam: The live UXO is separated and we had to get a UXO operator [eg MAG] here to take it away and destroy it. Some people would remove the explosives and give the metal back to me.
Victoria: You have little children. Would they be playing round here? Is that your house?
Nam: We worry about it a lot. We warn every day not to go to that side [of the yard]. We worry about people from outside coming in.
Lin (translator): Occasionally a live item will be found amongst the safe UXO.
Nam: We tell them every day not to play, but children are inquisitive and might want to play with the bombs.
Victoria: So today, when you get scrap delivered, will it still have live UXO in it?
Nam: Yes, sometimes we still receive live items underneath the safe. We worry a lot.
Victoria: When a scrap delivery arrives, is it easy to tell what's safe and what's live?
Nam: We know what is live and what is safe, but it's not always easy to tell about the scrap underneath.
Please make a donation to MAG to help clear and destroy more UXO around the world, enabling people to live, farm, work and go to school without the fear of death or injury. Make an online donation here. Thank you.
MAG would like to thank Victoria and Nam.
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