VZCZCXRO4897
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHVN #0496/01 1650903
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 140903Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1319
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0569

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENTIANE 000496 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS ED BESTIC 
DEPARTMENT FOR PM/WRA DAN HUTCHENS 
HANOI FOR JOHN WADE 
BANGKOK FOR SKIP KISSINGER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KHDP PARM EAID LA
SUBJECT: ASSORTED LAO UXO NEWS FRAGMENTS 
 
VIENTIANE 00000496  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
------------------------------ 
2007 Annual UXO Review Meeting 
------------------------------ 
 
¶1.  (U) Charge and econoff attended the annual UXO review 
meeting June 5, which addressed the 2007 workplans for the 
National Regulatory Authority (NRA) and UXO Lao.  The meeting 
provided a useful synopsis of events in the Lao UXO sector in 
2006 and presented the UXO goals of the Government of Laos 
(GOL) for 2007.  A number of interesting facts were 
presented.  In 2006 approximately 4,700 hectares of land were 
cleared of UXO by all operators foreign and domestic.  Of 
this total, 2,097 were cleared by UXO Lao, the GOL's national 
clearance operator.  This was 115% of its 1,824 hectare 
target.  UXO Lao has improved its clearance speed through a 
number of initiatives.  Starting in 2006 it began to move 
from clearing 100% of the metal in a designated area to a 
100% UXO-free "Battlefield Clearance" model that searches for 
objects half the size of a BLU-26 cluster bomb with fuse and 
ignores smaller objects or metal fragments.  Additionally, 
UXO Lao began cross-training 72 of its medics and drivers as 
deminers.  When there are two or more teams on one site, one 
medic and driver remain ready to assist any injured team 
members, while the others search for UXO.  According to UXO 
Lao Senior Technical Advisor John Dingley, this innovation 
has greatly increased productivity, which has steadily risen 
from 800 hectares cleared in 2003 to the 2,097 cleared in 
¶2006. 
 
¶2.  (U) The NRA's goals for 2007 are ambitious for an office 
that only officially opened in 2006.  In addition to 
finalizing national UXO clearance standards and beginning the 
process to accredit all UXO operators in Laos, the NRA is 
also working to create a casualty surveillance capacity, 
piggybacking on an already existing Lao government health 
monitoring program.  The hope is that by mid-2008 the NRA 
will have created a database that is continually updated, 
internet accessible, and contains all current UXO casualties. 
 The project also hopes to count past accidents as completely 
as possible.  The lack of reliable casualty information has 
persisted since 1975.  Current estimates provided by UXO Lao 
range from 150-400 casualties a year, with the overall 
post-1975 figure between 11,000 and 13,000 casualties. 
 
¶3.  (U) One problem raised by several donors at the meeting 
is the slowness of the approval process for the Memorandum of 
Understanding (MOU) required by the GOL before a new 
independent operator can begin work in Laos.  Armor Group, 
the new USG contractor that distributes U.S. financial aid to 
UXO Lao and the NRA, as well as managing the four technical 
assistants also funded by the USG, continues to wait for the 
signing of its MOU.  Although the NRA has quietly allowed 
Armor Group's representative to begin work at the NRA office, 
continued uncertainty on when the MOU will be signed has 
slowed planned management training and could endanger timely 
disbursement of the USG's FY 2007 funding for UXO Lao and the 
NRA if the process continues to drag on. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
Lima Conference on Banning Cluster Bombs 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Somnuk Vorasam, NRA Deputy Director; Khonepheng 
Thammavong, MFA UN Division Chief; and Major Saichay 
Kommasith, Deputy Chief of External Relations at the Ministry 
of Defense, represented Laos at the May 23-25 Lima Conference 
supporting a treaty on banning cluster munitions.  In their 
statement the Lao delegates indicated that the GOL would 
formally announce its intention to join both the Ottawa 
Treaty banning landmines and the potential treaty banning 
cluster munitions.  Stephane Vigie, UNDP Deputy Resident 
Representative, noted that one of the reasons for the GOL to 
join the two treaties is economic.  According to Vigie, a 
number of traditional UXO donors (such as Norway and the EC) 
have refused to support UXO Lao until the GOL joins the 
Ottawa Treaty.  He expects that after Laos, the country most 
deeply affected by cluster bombs in the world, officially 
offers to join the treaty banning cluster munitions, it will 
begin receiving additional UXO clearance aid.  Vigie 
cautioned, however, that the statement appears not to have 
been cleared at the GOL's highest levels and might represent 
freelancing on the part of the Lao delegation. 
 
----------------------- 
We're Number 1, for Now 
----------------------- 
 
VIENTIANE 00000496  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶5.  (U) In 2006, according to Embassy Vientiane figures, the 
United States Government gave $5.6 million to either the GOL 
or NGOs in Laos to help with UXO remediation, education, and 
victim assistance.  Although we do not always receive 
sufficient credit from Lao news sources, our monetary 
contribution makes us the largest single funding source for 
mine action in Laos.  While all FY 2007 funding decisions 
have not yet been made, we are likely to see the USG 
contribution fall compared to 2006.  Unfortunately, this is 
putting us in danger of losing our crown.  We are no longer 
the largest donor to national operator UXO Lao--Japan has 
assumed that mantle.  Japan recently upped its total 
contribution for UXO cleanup to about $2.12 million/year, not 
far below the level of our likely FY 2007 contribution. 
While USAID, and possibly USDA, will probably continue to 
fund some UXO projects, USG funding appears to be trending 
down, while other countries, including Switzerland and 
Ireland along with Japan, are trending higher.  Embassy 
Vientiane believes there is significant symbolic importance 
to the U.S. being the largest donor in this sector. 
MCGEEHAN