As part of his series On War, former marine Josh Rushing travelled to Laos to witness first hand how the legacy of conflict can affect a country many years on [Josh Rushing]
Published On 21 Jan 200921 Jan 2009
The tiny Asian country was never officially at war with the United States but suffered greatly nonetheless between 1964 and 1973 [Josh Rushing]
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Laos became involved in the Vietnam war after parts of the country were invaded by the North Vietnamese Army. It is believed that between 1964 and 1973 the US dropped more ordance on Laos than was dropped in the entire second world war [Josh Rushing]
The bombardment makes Laos the most bombed country in the world, the equivalent of a bomb-load every eight minutes, 24 hours a day was estimated to have hit the country [Josh Rushing]
Millions of unexploded bombs continue to cause casualties many years on to innocent civilians with no memories of the war [Josh Rushing]
Locals are increasingly being trained by the Mine Advisory Group to locate and destroy this unexploded ordnance which has a detrimental effect on the country's economy [Josh Rushing]
But it will be a long time before Laos can fully emerge from the legacy of a war it never intended to be involved in [Josh Rushing]
