355
West 39th St., New York, NY 10018
Phone:
(212) 760-9903 / Fax (212) 760-9906 / http://www.ffrd.org
The Honorable Jim
Kolbe
Chairman, House
Foreign Operations Subcommittee
H-150 Capitol
Washington, DC
20515
Attn: Mr. John
Shank, Majority Clerk
Fax: 202-226-7922
The Honorable
Nita Lowey
Ranking Member,
House Foreign Operations Subcommittee
1016 Longworth
House Office Building
Washington, DC
20515
Attn: Mark
Murray, Minority Professional Staff Member
Fax: 202-225-9476
June 22, 2004
Dear
Representative Kolbe and Representative Lowey:
On April 20, Rep.
Betty McCollum wrote you urging that you include $3 million in NADR funding for
unexploded ordnance (UXO) removal in Laos in next year’s Foreign Operations
legislation. I urge you to support this request.
Since my first
trip to Laos in 1975 on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee, I
have been aware of the dangers that UXO pose to civilians, regardless of which
side they supported in the Indochina war. The organization I founded, the Fund
for Reconciliation and Development, originally known as the US-Indochina
Reconciliation Project promotes fully normalized relations between the US and
Laos (as well as Cambodia, Vietnam, and Cuba). At first, non-governmental
organizations like ours were the only voices calling attention to the risks of
UXO. To their credit, the US Congress and State Department have listened, and
as US contacts with Laos have increased in the 1990’s, so has funding for UXO
clearance.
Our Indochina
representative, Andrew Wells-Dang, serves as the researcher for Laos for the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the Cluster Bomb Coalition.
Andrew’s data shows that nearly 30 years after the end of the war, deaths and
injuries from UXO are holding steady—and even increasing in some areas of Laos.
The United States
has been the largest bilateral donor to UXO programs in Laos for several years
now, but much more remains to be done. The national coordinating agency, UXO
Lao, recently produced a National Strategic Plan that calls for reorganization
and increased clearance activity over the next decade. This would be an
excellent time for the US to take further leadership in cleaning up this legacy
of war.
Thank you for
your concern on this humanitarian issue, and I urge you to respond positively
to Congresswoman McCollum’s request.
Sincerely yours,
John McAuliff
Executive
Director