Bomb Awareness Day, Cluster Bomb Focus

The Bomb Awareness Day in Vientiane, 7th April, was opened by the Lao Minister of Defence in the Lao National Cultural Center. An International UN day, Vientiane had decided to focus on Cluster Bombs.

When, on the Minsk, I rode up to the huge entrance, security tried to send me over to bike parking until an aware NRA official waved me into the huge entrance hall calming their aparent panic.

A space just inside had been reserved. All the NGOs, government agencies and commercial enterprises somehow involved in the Cluster Bomb issue were represented. Answering many questions, Project Pineapple became an intergral part of the day.

After much official process, various artists performed a number of sensitive traditional style songs directed at Bombies, cluster bombs. Finally a remarkable break dance group, Lao Bang Fai, including some with prostheics and blind, performed a stimulating set.

Next day, an invitation by Cope to their National Rehabilitation Center,NRC, gave me the opportunity to meet and photograph Mr Ta, one of the most photographed victims of a Cluster Bomb, armless and one eyed.

Visits were set up with a UXO clearance company and to a gold and copper mine. All was ready for my departure from Vientiane and a return to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Cope was arranging bikers both 2 and 3 wheeled for those with disabilities to send off Project Pineapple.