Laos bears the brutal scars of a war that was never its own. Three decades ago, the fighting in neighbouring Vietnam spilled over when the US launched a secret air war on the Viet Cong’s main supply route – the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Cutting through the eastern side of neutral Laos, the trail and its surrounds were destroyed by two-million tons of American explosives – the equivalent of a B52 planeload of bombs every six minutes for nine years. Up to a third remain unexploded, and, 25 years later an unexploded bomb, or UXO, kills someone in Laos every two days. British experts and local volunteers have the unenviable job of clearing the country of these deadly wartime souvenirs.
