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A boy without vision (blind) listens to a fellow student play the keyboard during a rehearsal session of the Lao Music Project at The National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane Laos. The project was selected as a UNESCO co-action program in 2003.

“Why can’t America buy me a new leg?” asked a 55-year-old former RLA (Royal Lao Army) soldier from Xieng Khoaung (Xiang Khuang, Phonsavan) Laos, as he grasped a set of parallel bars during an impromptu workout at the National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane, Laos. “Oh I don’t know” replied an NGO worker, “We didn’t hear much about the war in Laos back in America I guess.”

 

A technician enters a workshop with a mold for a prosthetic leg.

Background

The seeds for such questions were planted in the early 1950’s, even before America’s CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) went to Laos during the “cold war”. Several decades of French colonialism ended after thousands of French troops were defeated by Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam, leading to a period that saw a milieu of complex political factions vie for control of Laos. Just a few years removed from WW II, a former American Army General, Dwight D. Eisenhower, became the US President. He theorized that the spread of old style communism should be contained otherwise all of Southeast Asia would fall into communist hands “like dominoes”. By the early 1960’s, as astonished Americans were treated to images of Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev loudly banging his shoe on a table and visiting Disneyland, clandestine activity was taking place in Laos that would touch the lives of Laotians generations later.

 

Former RLA soldier, victim of 'The Secret War'

A 55-year-old ethnic Hmong and former Royal Lao Army (RLA) soldier from Xieng Khoaung (Xiang Khuang, Phonsavan) Laos, displays his antiquated prosthetic device in his dilapidated living quarters at The National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane Laos. He was among the Hmong guerrillas who fought against Pathet Lao forces in northeastern Laos in conjunction with American B-52 bombers, who attacked from the sky. The war is known as “The Secret War”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Workout on the parallel bars adjacent to his dilapidated living quarters at The National Rehabilitation Center (NRC) in Vientiane Laos.

The Secret War

Beginning In the mid 1960’s, a “secret war” led by the USA was waged on Laotian soil. American government officials publicly denied any involvement in Laos however until 1970, for they knew US citizens were growing weary of the ever-rising American casualty count tabulated on nightly full color TV newscasts containing violent imagery detailing combat in Vietnam. America’s youth, unlike today, were especially active in an anti-war effort that included radio waves filled with the song of protest and clashes with government forces that took place seemingly weekly. Meanwhile, back in Laos, thousands of brave Lao soldiers were surreptitiously losing their lives or were maimed for life. In the vicinity of the Ho Chi Minh trail that snaked into Laos, linking North and South Vietnam, ethnic Hmong soldiers were fighting a brutal battle under the cover of American air support.

 

UXO (unexploded ordinance) victims are gathered for conversation at the National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane, Laos.

 

 

Bombs, Chemical Weapons and Landmines

Today, cluster bomb beads live in Laos. During this secret war, (by 1972 approximately 70 percent of all American air strikes in Indochina were aimed at targets in Laos) millions of cluster bombs were dropped on Lao territory from American aircraft flying in from a base in Thailand. About the size of a baseball, millions of these “bombies” as they are known in Laos, failed to explode. The present number of these bombs that have yet to be recovered is realistically anyone’s guess. According to Lao government statistics, UXO (unexploded ordnance) material injures or kills over one-hundred people each year, but outside estimates run much higher. Additionally, these conflicts saw the utilization of landmines. Most children who are injured are between 2 and 10 years old, and are victimized while tending farm animals or working around their homes.

 

A boy without vision (blind) plays music in total darkness during a rehearsal session of the Lao Music Project at The National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane Laos.

Laos Today

Organized healthcare in rural Laos in virtually non-existent. Basic medicine such as aspirin is unavailable in the countryside where doctors earn $40-$60 USD per month and diagnostic equipment is scarce.

Take the case of sixteen-year-old Khenemone Chanmeechai, a resident of the National Rehabilitation Center (NRC) in Vientiane, Laos. She began losing her vision at age nine as a result of conjunctivitis. By the time her parents could afford to get her to a hospital in Vientiane, the damage was irreparable and the doctors told her she would not see the world again. She gradually lost her vision. “It is so hard to live my life but I have to carry on.” she laments.

New prosthetic legs await Bao Kham and Thong Xay at The National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane, Laos. The Lao Prathet government estimates roughly 400 people become new victims of UXO (un-exploded ordnance) each year in Laos, although outside estimates run much higher. Many of the new victims are children under age ten, who are accidentally injured while tending to farm animals or performing other chores in rural Laos.

 

 

Children without vision use the wall as a reference point at The National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane, Laos.

 

National in Name Only

The NRC, a one-hundred percent foreign funded institution, is comprised off roughly ten NGO’s that provide a variety of services. According to one NGO official, the facility receives no funding from the Lao government. Rather than a facility for bed-ridden, chronically ill or terminal patients, it serves as a “half way house” for people fortunate enough to get there. Other than roughly one hundred fifty blind and deaf children living in dormitories and attending classes, there are few permanent residents. At times it appears to be a ghost town. Most of the people who temporarily call the NRC home are awaiting prosthetic devices to be fitted and manufactured before retuning to the countryside. Activities consist of wheelchair manufacturing, a music program for blind children, an art program for deaf children, and a prosthetic device manufacturing facility. International donors include the Nippon Foundation of Japan and the Sultan of Brunei among others.

 

Nearly 60 years after fighting that killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians began in earnest in Laos, many of its citizens are trying to adjust to the scars of a war that remains a mere footnote in American history. This is a brief look.

 

Confined to their wheelchairs, patients at The National Rehabilitation Center (NRC) display strength and speed while playing a game of basketball in Vientiane, Laos. Many of the patients at the NRC are UXO victims or suffer from degenerative diseases due to poor rural health care.

 

 

A UXO (un-exploded ordnance) victim's living quarters is in need of repair at The National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane Laos. Although Lao government officials claim there are between 200-400 new victims each year, outside sources dispute that figure and their estimates run much higher.

 

Copyright John Brown

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