Preventing another Laos? Friday, 4 April, 2008Geneva’s at the center of the effort to end cluster bombs. Final negotiations on a global treaty to limit or ban the munitions will take place in May. WRS’s Jordan Davis talks with Paul Vermeulen, president of Handicap International Switzerland and John Borrie, senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research about those talks. He also asks them why Laos’s problems have attracted relatively little attention.
The long, long cleanup Thursday, 3 April, 2008In Part 4 of our series from Laos, we examine efforts to clean up the unexploded bombs that litter the country. WRS’s Jordan Davis has the story from the Laos’s Savannakhet Province.
Digging for danger Wednesday, 2 April, 2008One of the hardest hit groups from accidents with Vietnam-era bombs is scrap collectors. It’s a dangerous job. But poverty pushes many to dig for their living. World Radio Switzerland’s Jordan Davis reports.
Accident in Phonehai Village Tuesday, 1 April, 2008Secret US bombing raids during the Vietnam war left Laos with the dubious distinction of being the most bombed country on earth. It’s estimated 80 million cluster bombs didn’t explode when they fell. Early this year in the village of Phonehai a single cluster round killed four children. WRS’s Jordan Davis has their story.
A culture of bombs Monday, 31 March, 2008In part one of our series, World Radio Switzerland’s Jordan Davis visits Sephon, in Laos’s Savannakhet province. It’s where the legacy of the Vietnam war is a culture of bombs.