Obama Vows Spending $90m To Clear Vietnam War’s Unexploded Bombs In Laos

The United States President Barack Obama vowed to be spending $90 million over the period of next three years for clearing work of unexploided bombs of Vietnam War which were dropped on Laos.

The announcement was made little while ago at the Lao National Cultural Hall in the Laos capital Vientiane pledging to make the two nations whole again.

Obama is the first sitting US president to visit Laos.

During the Vietnam War US bombing campaign was implemented secretly for about nine years between 1964 and 1973 to cut supplies to Vietnam and combat with the communist forces in northern Laos. It is assumed millions of bombs are still unexploded in the countryside of the country.

The president said, “The spirit of reconciliation is what brings me here today. Given our history here, the U.S .has a moral obligation to help Laos heal.”

Laos was officially a neutral country during the Vietnam War and US conducted 580,000 bombing missions by dropping about 270 million cluster bombs.

The cluster bombs were of the size of baseball and about two-third of the estimated 80 million of those were not detonated. Until now less than 1 percent have been cleared, but the death and injury toll have been at least 20,000 since then.

About a decade Washington had funded $2.5 million for the purpose and earlier this year it was increased to $15 million.