The Effects of War in Laos
XIENG KHOUANG PROVINCE, located in the mountains of Northern Laos, was the site of major ground battles between the Pathet Lao and the American-backed Royal Lao Army and one of the most heavily bombed areas of the entire war.
Today Xieng Khouang is known primarily for the Plain of Jars, a collection of two thousand year old archaeological sites, but leftovers from the war are unavoidable – the landscape is dotted with craters, Hmong villagers use bomb casings as building material and unexploded ordnance (UXO) remains buried throughout forests and farmland.
The Lao government and a few Western NGOs (most notably MAG) have launched campaigns to clear jar sites and farmland of bombs, encouraging tourism and reducing the number of accidental UXO victims. Despite these admirable efforts, Xieng Khouang remains poor, barren and littered with deadly explosives.