Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Saleumsay Kommasith told the media at a meeting of the UXO trust fund steering committee on Friday that 200 of the over 1,200 employees are being laid off. [Please note that the original article stated that 500 employees would be laid off. Later, UXO/Lao stated that the correct...
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Media
From the “Vientiane Times”: UXO clearance workers laid off.
From the Vientiane Times: “Interplast medical team reconstructing lives in Laos”
Some 88 people suffering from severe burns or other disfiguring conditions have received free surgical treatment, thanks to the support of the Interplast Australia and New Zealand medical team . Surgeons from Interplast and Mahosot Hospital met yesterday to evaluate their surgical achievements during their10 day working stay in Laos from February 18-28. Director...
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From the Wausau Daily Herald: “Bomb removal activist joins forces with seventh-grader”
KRONENWETTER — Jim Harris’ career has taken an unlikely trajectory and has now come full circle. Since retiring as principal of Weston Elementary School in 2003, Harris, 63, of Kronenwetter developed a nonprofit organization called We Help War Victims. He and a crew he hires spend three months of the year finding and disposing...
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The Guardian:WikiLeaks cables: Secret deal let Americans sidestep cluster bomb ban
British and American officials colluded in a plan to hoodwink parliament over a proposed ban on cluster bombs, the Guardian can disclose. According to leaked US embassy dispatches, David Miliband, who was Britain’s foreign secretary under Labour, approved the use of a loophole to manoeuvre around the ban and allow the US to keep...
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Bangkok Post: Many Hmong refugees from Wat Tham Krabok will remember Phra Gordon, “the black monk”.
Bangkok Post 24/4/11 Mercenary turned monk passes away A former United States soldier of fortune who later became a monk in Thailand and helped hundreds of people overcome alcohol and drug addictions at the world famous Wat Tham Krabok in Saraburi has passed away. A spokesman for the temple said Phra Gordon, also known...
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Vientiane Times: “UXO a daily threat to rural families”
A mother in Nondaengneua village, Soukhouma district, Champasak province, in southern Laos, is still mourning her daughter’s death after she was killed by UXO in February last year. She was 13 years old, she should not have died and been taken from her family, the girl’s mother, Ms Jone lamented. Her son survived the...
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From the KPL Lao News Agency: In spite of tragedy at home, Japan continues to support UXO removal in Laos.
KPL Laos News Agency Government of Japan has agreed to provide a grant total US$744,680 in support of UXO Lao operations in southern provinces of Saravane and Sekong, for 2011. The grant contract was signed in Vientiane Capital, on 25 March between the Director of Lao National UXO, Mr. Bounpone Sayasenh and Ambassador of...
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The Guardian: “WikiLeaks cables- Secret deal let Americans sidestep cluster bomb ban”.
British and American officials colluded in a plan to hoodwink parliament over a proposed ban on cluster bombs, the Guardian can disclose. According to leaked US embassy dispatches, David Miliband, who was Britain’s foreign secretary under Labour, approved the use of a loophole to manoeuvre around the ban and allow the US to keep...
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Vientiane Times: “Ten Year Old Killed, Sister Injured in Cluster Bomb Tragedy”
A 10-year-old girl was killed and her sister injured on Wednesday by a cluster bomb that exploded in Thasala village, Khamkeuth district, Borikhamxay province. The incident happened at about 11am, when Ms Pui, 10, was returning home from school and picked up an unexploded bomb. Her older sister Ms Paeng, 15, saw the bomb...
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New Zealand Government Press Release: NZ will donate $1.1 million for Lao UXO removal
New Zealand will provide $1.1 million to the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to help clear unexploded cluster munitions left in the north-east of the country, Disarmament and Arms Control Minister, Georgina te Heuheu, announced today. “More than thirty years after the end of the conflict in Indochina, cluster munitions and other...
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