9 April 2008

Letter to Obama

Dear mister Obama,

From the deeply rooted hope that the American elections in November will harbour success for you, I write you this letter. You are the first trustworthy presidential candidate in a couple of decades.
I do not only write you this letter on behalf of my husband and myself, but especially on behalf of and for the children of Laos, Vietnam, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq and several other former war countries.

This letter contains a request.

In your election motto you say it's time for change. The time has come for new insights and for a new and inspiring role for the United States of America in the world.
The time of doom scenarios is over; you say an end must come to negativism, fear, power showing, despair, destruction and war.
Instead you offer hope, trust in the future and in each other, cooperation with people who think in a different way, humility, optimism and peace. That's what America, her people and the rest of the world really are waiting for.

You are right.

That's what all people, anywhere on this planet have been waiting for. And not only for the last eight years when mister Bush was allowed to show his incompetence, but for much longer.
Even longer than you and I have been on this earth.

This letter contains a simple request. A request you will be able to grant, I trust you in that.

For the last six years my husband and I have been travelling through the world. We do this by bicycle, for this brings us closer to the people; on the bicycle we become part of daily life in unknown countries, we stay fit and lean and even earn the respect of many a stranger. We would like to advise every aspiring minister and president to do this for some time, because it's a very enlightening experience.

This is not our request though, but just a free advice.

Our request is even simpler and easier to grant.

April of this year we cycled through the very poor country of Laos, an underdeveloped country where most people don't know the meaning of the words wealth, capital investment or luxury.
Of course there are many more countries like Laos where, in our experience, people seem to be happier than people in the rich Western societies to which you and we belong. People in Laos do laugh a lot, they are very friendly and relaxed.

Until a certain degree.

In the year of 2008 the past is still controlling daily life in Laos. A recent past in the centuries old history of this country. A recent past in which the United States of America played a miserable and furtive role.

In the beginning of the sixties of the last century America started an offensive against growing communism in South-East Asia. Especially the Vietnamese communists, supported by the former Soviet-Union, were targeted. This was the start of the Vietnam War.
Laos, a country that was torn apart, wished to stay neutral in this conflict, which was granted by all international parties (including the US and Vietnam) by the Geneva Convention of 1962.
As in most war situations, the weakest parties get trampled the hardest. Vietnam as well as the US didn't give shit about Laos' neutrality; other interests, their own interests, were deemed higher.
The Vietnamese used Laos' territory for their own purposes, namely transporting military personnel and supplies on the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail. America didn't condone this and started a secret war against Laos. Nobody knew about it, not the United Nations, not the American people, not the American representatives in Congress. The world didn't know.
A secret war with hidden motives.

Between 1964 and 1973, for nine years, your government bombed a neutral country. What did the lives of people in an underdeveloped and poor country full of farmers and jungle matter?
Who would find out?
And well, it was for a very good cause: crushing the communists.
We don't blame you, you were a child, just like us.

Like the children of today's Laos.

To refreshen my own memory, maybe yours and that of the rest of the world, I will tell you something you might be aware of, but something we all have forgotten. Or wish to forget.
In those nine years America dropped two billion kilograms of bombs on Laos. A neutral country with an extremely poor population. For nine years every eight minutes planes dropped hundreds of bombs. Laos was neutral, but at the same time it became the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world. Thirty percent of those bombs never exploded, either because of technical problems or a too low altitude of the planes.

Most of the bombs were anti-personnel bombs, clusterbombs, filled with 670 tennis ball-sized bombies each. After dropping from the plane the steel shells opened, releasing the bombies that started spinning faster and faster during their descent. Then every bombie was supposed to explode in the air, at ground level, dispensing 300,000 deadly steel balls and fragments each with only one purpose: killing as many people as possible.
Of the ninety million bombies dropped thirty million did not explode, but landed in bushes, in the soft farmland, in trees, in villages.
In a neutral country, full of frightened and innocent people. Common people, like you and me, who want to live and have a good life.

Now it's the year 2008.
Laos is still a poor country, where ninety percent of the population earns a living by farming rice and other daily crops. Most people don't live in a stone house, but in a self constructed wooden or bamboo hut.
Many of them don't have access to electricity or running water. And nearly everyone has to go to his plot of farmland. Land that has to be ploughed, by hand or with a buffalo.
Deadly land.

It's about forty years after the last bombs fell. The war in Laos continues. The secret war.
Still, every year, children, men and women lose their lives or limbs when they till their land or build a hut. Especially children are the victims, attracted by the beautiful colours and interesting shape of the bombies that look like marvellous playing balls. Until they explode and spread their deadly content.

Some international non governmental organisations, like MAG, have been active in Laos for years to protect the people. Every year they give information and dismantle one hundred thousand bombs. One hundred thousand, that sounds good.
But simple math shows that at this rate it will take many decades before the country will be safe for its population: there are still about thirty million unexploded bombs in Laos.

All this time the United States of America, the most powerful country in the world and guilty of this genocide, has not taken responsability for its deeds.
No granting its mistakes.
No excuses.
No help.

Wanting to make up, your rich government has offered humanitarian aid like every 'generous' rich country obliges itself to do.
A small gesture, and the Laos government rightly shrugs its shoulders.
But: no real aid, no redemption.

Many aid organisations have asked to prohibit the manufacturing and use of cluster bombs. The European Union granted this request in 2001 and has been pushing for a ban ever since.
The United States of America doesn't comply. The mighty and powerful weapons lobby in your country has other interests.
Money.
Power.

Now, finally, the time for change has come, as you mentioned many times. A fantastic task is awaiting you. A task in which hope, trust in the future and in each other, cooperation with former enemies, humility, optimism and peace are the main goals.

Our request is simple: ban the cluster bombs.
And do not forget the people of Laos.

Sincerely yours,

Peter Mak and Karin van Toor