Cluster munitions were used in vast quantities by the US from 1964 to 1973 in an attempt to interdict the flow of supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in southern Lao, and in support of Royal Lao Government military campaigns in the north, during the conflict with Vietnam.
Dam - 7 years old
- Dam after the accident © Handicap International
“On 13 August 2001, three children aged between five and seven left their village in the province of Savannakhet in Laos, to collect honey in the forest. This province was heavily bombed during the Vietnam war.
Seven year old Dam and his friends came across a tennis ball size BLU 63 bomblet, one of thousands that litter the entire country. Despite the fact that the children had been told, time and time again, not to touch unexploded ordnance, and even though they knew what it was, Dam threw the bomblet at a piece of wood. Scared, the two other children ran away. On the second attempt the BLU 63 exploded. Over 25 years after the end of the Vietnam War, a cluster bomb had claimed yet another victim.
On that day our bomb clearance team was working in the area. As we had medical equipment and more importantly a vehicle I went to see if we could help. Dam’s injuries were extensive. He suffered deep lacerations all over his body, his left femur was fractured and he had several internal injuries. This weapon had done exactly what it was designed to do, inflict massive trauma to the body without necessarily killing.
We evacuated Dam and his father to Savannakhet. The journey took four hours by car. After initial treatment, Dam was then transferred to an international hospital in Thailand for a further two months of rehabilitation.
Of the hundreds killed, injured and maimed every year by cluster munitions, Dam was one of the lucky ones and made a full recovery…”
Zak Johnson, Explosive Ordnance Device Advisor at Handicap International.
- Dam 5 years after © 2006 Handicap International
