I travelled to Laos as a new trustee of MAG to join the 30 year celebrations of MAG’s Laos programme and to visit teams on the Vietnam border clearing unexplored cluster munitions in the area of the Ho Chi Minh trail. One or two personal thoughts from a moving and inspiring trip: 1. The most bombed country per capita in the world (to date ….) is still dealing with the consequences nearly 60 years on: it is a sign of the impact that Laos added an 18th sustainable development goal to clear unexploded ordnance. 2. The MAG programme is big (1400 staff) but the scale of the devastation and the painstaking nature of the clearance work means that there is still much to do. 3. It was inspiring to see that the programme over the years has developed significant Lao expertise in this technical and potentially dangerous work. Most of the staff have been recruited and trained from the local villages and over the years a number of women and men have developed such a level of expertise that some have become senior managers in the government’s agency or are now taking on the senior operations jobs previously the exclusive preserve of western ex-army bomb disposal experts. 4. But the most sober lesson for me was just how long it takes to recover from this kind of bombing campaign. It gives a new perspective on what it will take to recover from the current devastation being wrought today eg in Gaza. Decisions that come out of military logic such as the decisions to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs and, in recent days, anti-personnel mines, look very different in the knowledge of the decades of problems they will store up for the people on the ground after the fighting has stopped.
Today, MAG Laos celebrates 30 years of work. Since 1994, the team has been clearing cluster bomb contamination left over from a war that ended over 50 years ago. Looking forward to celebrating these achievements with colleagues 🇱🇦
Was great to catch up with you in Laos and hear more about MAG's work in the country over the past 30 years.
Writer and Thinktanker. Advisory Board European Partnership for Democracy and Election-Watch.EU, Senior Adviser Kofi Annan Foundation, Trustee Mines Advisory Group International
4moSome photos from the visit: