Ban Advocates Blog

A total of 8 cluster munitions survivors (some with family members to aid them) arrived in Vientiane on Sunday night after many hours of traveling to reach the capital. The survivors come from various districts and provinces of the most contaminated cluster munitions areas of Lao PDR. These survivors were joined by campaigners from other countries including Vietnam and Cambodia who will share their experiences with the new Ban Advocates. Mr. Thi, together with Linh his interpreter arrived from Vietnam, and Reth, arrived from Cambodia. We all met at the hotel on Sunday night ready for a week long workshop in Vientiane.

The workshop will run from the 11th to 15th January and is aimed to bring together for the first time ever a group of Laos survivors who will join the Ban Advocate initiative. During the workshop they will learn about the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), the victim assistance provisions under the Convention and how they can be heard in the global campaign to ban these deadly weapons. The group will also learn that their country will host the First Meeting of State Parties in 2010 and consider how they can play a role during this vitally important meeting. Further during the workshop the group will discuss how they can advocate for the implementation of the treaty in their own country where the needs of victims are still so huge.

Pham Quy Thi, Ban Advocate, 16 November 2009

© Mary Wareham

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank the host country, Indonesia, and sponsoring countries of Australia, Austria, Germany and Norway, and the international organizations for organizing such an important conference in Asia as the most cluster munition affected region in the world.

It’s an honor for me to speak on behalf of the thousands of cluster bomb survivors in this important conference. My name is Pham Quy Thi and I am a cluster bomb survivor from Vietnam. In 1977 while I was working in my rice field, I accidentally hit a cluster bomb and lost my right arm. Suddenly I became an amputee, I was too depressed to live but thanks to support from the community and my family, I survived the tragedy and continue working to support my children. But still to this day, a number of metal fragments are still lodged in my body.

Vijak Bounmy, Ban Advocate, Lao PDR

© Mary Wareham

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

My name is Bounmy. I am a cluster munition survivor coming from Lao PDR.

One morning in 1996, I was digging the ground. Suddenly, a cluster submunition exploded. Villagers heard the explosion and they came to see me and brought me home.

When my parents saw me, they were devastated and they thought that I was dead. But I felt such a pain and I cried out. At this time, my parents and my relatives realized that I was still alive. Then they transported me to the hospital. It took about 2 hours to get there.

Doctors did not have any other choice to cut off my arm.

An important delegation of Asian Ban Advocates arrived in Bali on Friday 13 November to attend the Regional Conference on the Promotion and Univerzalisation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which will take place on Monday and Tuesday 16 and 17 November.

From the group of Ban Advocates, some of them like Soraj from Afghanistan or Thi from Vietnam have already been involved in previous conferences, as well as in national advocacy projects. Moreover, several cluster munition survivors have joined the Ban Advocate’s project for the first time and are attending this regional conference, they are: Vijak from Lao PDR, Khushal from Afghanistan, Huong and Le from Vietnam.

Khushal Malek Naser Khan, based on an interview in Afghanistan, November2009

I was working as a paramedic team member with OMAR (a mine cleaning organization) in Kandahar in Afghanistan. On 20 April 2000, while walking, I saw a piece of (N8U) bullet lying on the ground. So I decided to pick it up and put it in a safer place till the Mine Clearance Team could come to neutralize it, but it exploded in my hand and cut off my arm at the elbow.

From then on, I have had various challenges in leading my life within the community. One of my biggest challenges has been that I lost my job as a paramedic. Before I used to work in different hospitals as a nurse and surgical assistant, but now I am not able to work in my profession anymore. The incident has not only affected me but also my family and children, who are now facing economic difficulties.

I want all the governments to ban the cluster munitions all over the world, I wish no one to become disabled like me because if you are the guardian of a family, not only you become disabled but all the family becomes disabled.

Since April 2009, I have been working for ALSO (Afghan Landmine Survivors Organization) as an Advocacy Officer in Kabul. I will join the Ban Advocates initiative for the first time, attending the conference in Indonesia in November 2009.

Kien Le, based on an interview in Vietnam, November2009

I hit a cluster bomb while working in my garden and lost my left leg. My four-year-old daughter was killed. I feel terrified whenever I recall the accident. My family has encountered a lot of difficulties because as the breadwinner; I was turned into an amputee permanently. I hope there will be assistance programs in terms of household economic development and rehabilitation for cluster bomb survivors.

I come from Vietnam and I will join the Ban Advocates initiative for the first time, attending the conference in Indonesia in November 2009.

© Gael Turine

BAN NEWSLETTER ISSUE 25, OCTOBER 2009

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Ban Newsletter Issue 25

Hai Lang District, Quang Tri, Vietnam – 01 October 2009: The Spanish television group (TVE) arrived when Thi was busy clearing mud and debris of his house which was underwater up to 1.5 meters previous night, as resulted from the most powerful typhoon of the year, Ketsana.

During two consecutive days earlier, the typhoon directly hit the central region of Vietnam, including Quang Tri Province where Thi is living with extremely strong wind and torrential rain, causing a huge damage to these provinces. The typhoon has damaged 170,000 houses, of which 6,000 wiped out completely; 125,000 houses remain being flooded in Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam. Hundreds of thousands of people have to seek shelter in their relatives’ or stay in temporary camps without electricity, clean water and food. Until now, a total of 101 people were reported dead, 23 missing, and over 200 injured. A number of locations in the region remain isolated due to flash flood or landslide as the typhoon aftermath.

On 30 September 2009, we had a great launch of the report “Voices from the Ground” in Dushanbe. The opening of the event was at 10 o’clock. From 40 invitees, 30 of them attended the event. We were disappointed that nobody came from the supportive embassies. However, all other attendants participated actively in the event. I personally did the first presentation, to introduce the report “Voices from the Ground”. The Tajikistan Mine Action Centre (TMAC) presented the cluster munitions and landmines situation in Tajikistan, as well as the Victim Assistance in Tajikistan. The Fondation Suisse de Déminage (FSD) spoke about the clearance of cluster munitions. Mr. Bakhtiyor Begmuradov, on behalf of the ICBL, presented the cluster munitions situation worldwide.

On 2 September 2009 Ban Advocates from Serbia joined the global launch of the breakthrough report “Voices from the Ground” locally at a national release event in Belgrade. Speakers at the well attended press conference held by Handicap International included local representatives of mine and explosive remnants of war survivor associations.

Svetlana Bogdanovic, a key support staff member of Ban Advocates since the project’s inception was also the coordinator for the survey of mine and ERW Survivors throughout Serbia which formed the basis of the Serbia Country section of the “Voices from the Ground” report. Svetlana spoke at the event and drew on her international experiences while describing the survey process and the situation those survivors surveyed had presented.

Dejan Dikic, Ban Advocate from the Civilian War Victims Association of Nis spoke about the situation for civilian survivors and the hopes for the future of provisions for victim assistance in the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which Serbia is yet to sign.

Ban Advocate and CMC spokesperson Branislav Kapetanovic and Ban Advocates Sladjan and Dusica Vuckovic also attended the launch and were available for media interviews.