“We Buried Them Because We Didn’t Know What to Do”
“More than 20 years ago, there were hundreds of bombs in our rice field. At that time, we buried them along the edge of the rice field because there were too many and we didn’t know what to do. After so many years and heavy rains, we no longer know exactly where they are, but I will report it to the NPA clearance team,” Mr. Bounmee’s wife said.
“The area is heavily contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO),” Mr. Bounmee said. “We regularly find different types of bombs, including round bombs look like oranges, bombs with tails, and aircraft bombs. I also have encountered UXO in my land many times”.
For more than 40 years, Mr. Bounmee and his family have lived in Chaling Village, Dak Cheung District, Sekong Province. Since settling here in 1985, UXO contamination has been part of their daily lives.
“Last year, while we were preparing land for planting cassava, I found more than twenty bombs,” Mr. Bounmee’s recalled. “In the past, people even collected UXO items similar to what the clearance team found and burned them. I also remember a man from a nearby village who tried to dismantle a bomb to sell it as scrap metal. Two men were killed instantly” he said.
Today, Mr. Bounmee and his wife continue to worry about the safety of their family, especially their two young children, aged nine and five years old, who often play near the family’s cassava field.
In June 2026, the NPA team continues clearance in Chaling Village. During clearance operations on 13 and 14 June, the team discovered and safely destroyed 19 BLU-26 submunitions. To date, the team has destroyed 56 of these unexploded bombs, covering an area of 17,180 square meters.
NPA sincerely thanks the Government of the United States through the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane for the valuable support to our mine action work in Lao PDR.
