US cluster bombs still blasting Laotian children

this is dedicated to my friend Leung, who lost most of his family in this disgrace.

clipped from www.banminesusa.org On April 30, 1975 Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces, finally ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. From 1964 to 1973 the United States dropped 90 million cluster bomblets on neighboring Laos in 580,000 bombing missions—equivalent to one planeload every 8 minutes, 24 hours-a-day, for 9 years. Up to 30% of the cluster bomblets failed to detonate, leaving as many as 25-30 million unexploded bomblets covering more than one-third of Laos at war’s end. It is estimated that there are at least 10 million cluster submunitions still littering the land. In the years since, as many as 12,000 civilians—an estimated 40% of them children—have been killed or maimed, with hundreds of new casualties each year. In addition, cluster bomblets hamper basic food production and economic development in Laos, one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the UN Development Program, at current funding levels the cluster bomb removal program may take up to 100 years to complete. What can YOU do?