NEWS FROM LAOS

UXO LAO

The Lao National UXO Program was able in 1999 to clear significantly more hectares of unexploded ordnances and lead seminars in significantly more villages than targeted for the year. In addition, several hundred new deminers were trained in UXO removal, first aid and community awareness. Beginning is September 1999 UXO LAO replaced foreign trainers with Lao trainers in keeping with government policy. UXO LAO receives funding from UNDP, UNICEF, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Decade of US-Lao Counter-Narcotics Cooperation

January 2000 marked a decade of cooperation between Laos and the US improving containment of the production, consumption and trafficking of illegal narcotics in Lao PDR. In that time the US has provided Laos with nearly $20 million in aid to fund programs to persuade farmers in remote areas of the north to give up opium cultivation in exchange for new infrastructure, services and economic opportunities. New roads in Hua Muang and Vieng Thong give remote villages improved access to markets, public health, and education. Three new hydroelectric dams irrigate rice paddies now able to grow dry season rice for the first time, and new hospitals, schools, dispensaries and clean water systems improve living conditions in rural villages and provide once opium reliant rural regions with new resources to build an economy free of narcotics

Officials hope that projects in the Boun Tai and Samphan districts of Phongsaly province will achieve similar success by working closely with district and province authorities to identify and address the most urgent needs of the villagers in the project area. Similar projects are also being undertaken in other regions on a smaller scale, some of them with additional support from the Japanese embassy.

These efforts compliment the joint US-Lao counter narcotics law enforcement program instituted in 1992 to help train Lao drug enforcement agents and establish special counter narcotics law enforcement offices in appropriate districts.

Food for Work Project Funded

The World Food Program presented the Lao government with US$4,224,000 in aid to establish a three year pilot project (2000-2003) whose main objective is to provide quality food for those who work on infrastructure development and reconstruction of weirs and roads and who extend new province rice fields. The project will provide training courses for local officials, and will be implemented in six Lao provinces with cooperation from provincial authorities, CARE International, the German technical assistance agency GIZ, the Rural Development Project of the International Labor Organization (IRAE-ILO), and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

Camacrafts Exports Hmong Handicraft

The Lao branch of US-based Camacrafts provides textiles and cotton and silk thread to over 138 Hmong women in Saythany Vangvieng, Nonghat and Toulakhom districts, to make embroidered handicrafts for export.

The company offices are in Phontong village, Chanthaboury district, Vientiane municipality, where it has a showroom to display the results of Hmong sewing skills. A spokesperson said the company would buy whatever the women make subject to a quality inspection, exporting up to 80 percent of the embroidery to Japan, the US, Australia and Europe. The raw materials - textiles, cotton and silk threads - are imported by the company and sent out to the villages each month. The most productive source at present is Somsamai village, Saythany district.

The Traditional Hmong-style designs are sometimes modified and improved, especially when a different color is desired by a customer, the Managing Director, Fran Piercey, said. “The most beautiful designs and embroidery work command the best price from our company, encouraging and supporting producers,” said Ms. Piercey.

Preceding from the Vientiane Times. Additional stories can be found on the Vientiane Times web site, http://www.laoembasy.com For subscriptions contact the Vientiane Times, Pangkham Rd, Vientiane, Lao PDR; phone (856-21)216364 or 217593; fax (856-21)216365. There is a fraudulent site calling itself Vientianetimes.com which provides insight into the viewpoint of American opponents of the Lao government

Landmine Report

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines released its second annual Landmine Monitor report on September 7, covering 95 countries worldwide. The entire report is now available on the Web at: http://www.icbl.org/lm/2000/report Many of the Asian reports, including Cambodia, and Vietnam, contain substantial new information on landmine policy and use, demining and victim assistance. The Vietnam report was researched and written by Asia Pacific Center program director Andrew Wells-Dang. Andrew is currently working with the other Asian researchers to produce an ASEAN Landmine Report to be used for regional advocacy purposes.