ID :
198391
Mon, 08/01/2011 - 07:10
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/198391
The shortlink copeid
Laos needs much funding for UXO clearance
VIENTIANE,AUG.(KPL)- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs said last week that the government attached much attention to UXO clearance in the country and needed vast funding for clearing the unexploded ordnance (UXOs)
Mr. Thongloun Sisoulith told a press conference held to mark the 1st anniversary of the UN convention on cluster bombs which will fall on today August 1 that the clearance was capital intensive as 87,000 sq km, one third of the total area was contaminated by UXOs.
He said that the UN convention was result of effort of international community in banning and destroying cluster munitions to ensure cluster bomb-free world.
“For decades, cluster munitions have claimed lives and victimized millions of people worldwide,” said Dr. Thongloun.
During the Indochina was over two million tonnes of bombs were dropped on Laos’s soil and numerous number of which failed to explode. Since then, the war legacy has killed and injured tens of thousands of Lao people.
Currently, hundreds of thousand people live in fear and threatened by the UXOs in the ground and this prevented the Lao people from accessing proper income generation and livelihood, according to the Foreign Minister.
Last year in November, Laos hosted the first meeting of State Parties to UN Convention on Cluster Munitions which saw the presence of over 1,000 delegates representing 120 states and 150 international organisations.
Mr. Thongloun Sisoulith told a press conference held to mark the 1st anniversary of the UN convention on cluster bombs which will fall on today August 1 that the clearance was capital intensive as 87,000 sq km, one third of the total area was contaminated by UXOs.
He said that the UN convention was result of effort of international community in banning and destroying cluster munitions to ensure cluster bomb-free world.
“For decades, cluster munitions have claimed lives and victimized millions of people worldwide,” said Dr. Thongloun.
During the Indochina was over two million tonnes of bombs were dropped on Laos’s soil and numerous number of which failed to explode. Since then, the war legacy has killed and injured tens of thousands of Lao people.
Currently, hundreds of thousand people live in fear and threatened by the UXOs in the ground and this prevented the Lao people from accessing proper income generation and livelihood, according to the Foreign Minister.
Last year in November, Laos hosted the first meeting of State Parties to UN Convention on Cluster Munitions which saw the presence of over 1,000 delegates representing 120 states and 150 international organisations.
