Remains of secret war of 1964 - 1973

Excerpts from BBC - Claudia Hammond on Loas

Full report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9360746.stm

Excerpts:
During the so-called secret war between 1964 and 1973, the US spent $2m (£1.3m) a day dropping bombs on this part of Laos in a failed attempt to prevent communism from taking hold.The equivalent of a plane-full of bombs dropped every eight minutes for nine years.
.....
.....
Local people make use of the old ordnance for window boxes, cluster bombs as ash-tray.
.....
.....
Yet thousands of items of unexploded ordnance remain and from time to time children still lose limbs from explosions after picking up the old cluster bombs, which look like shiny yellow tennis balls. The first safety songs they learn at school are not about crossing the road, but about the dangers of touching any metal they might find.

Unexploded has prevented formers from cultivating all of the land...

Laos: Most heavily bombed place on Earth
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1100842.stm