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    Lars Just (Danish School of Journalism)
    Unspoken Legacy
    Silver
    Documentary
     
    Tiny southeast asian Laos is a country of lines, tangents and hidden boundaries. Behind every rock, around waterholes and along both sides of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, invisible borders mark a clans language, a tigers habitat and some 80 million bombs, or UXO's (unexploded ordnance), still waiting to detonate. To cross a line might invite death, yet the laotians have no choice. The brave work the rice fields full of explosives, the desperate gather the UXO's to sell as scrap metal, to use in constructing cottages, to melt as spoons to sell at the local marked. In average, one person a day is killed or maimed. The 80 million UXO's are the legacy of a secret war in Laos. From 1963-1972 the CIA secretly bombed the country - making it the most heavily bombed country on Earth per capita - in an attempt to stop Vietnamese supply routes going through the eastern jungles. As the worlds eyes where fixed on the war in Vietnam, the bombing of Laos went on for a decade almost without being noticed by the public. As it ended in 1972, Henry Kissinger - one of the men believed by many to be the decision maker - won the Nobel Peace Prize in Paris. Today de-mining organizations have cleared below 1% of the contaminated area, which is roughly one third of Laos. The country is poor and the cost is high. Though using american bombing maps, every year the monsoon further transport the bombs to new areas, further hindering agriculture and socioeconomic development. According to the national de-mining organization, UXO Laos, it will be another 150 years before the bombs have been cleared: the last victim of the secret war in Laos has not yet been born.
    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    Bombs in the grass
    It was early morning in the rainy season when children inside a Children's Village found a UXO in the wet grass. When the de-mining group arrived they found over 70. A truckload of soil from the outside hadn't been properly checked, so the old UXO's had entered un-noticed. Fortunately no one was injured, but for the children and mothers it was a reminder of the dangers beyond the walls.
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    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    Khantoun Pantarong
    "I remember a bright light and a loud noise, before everything went dark," says Khantoun Pantarong. The young man accidentally hit a UXO when working the rice fields close to his home. He lost an eye, parts of his hand and carries scrapnel in the chest, which hurts when it's cloudy. "I don't know why the americans bombed us, but I hope they'll come and take back their bombs."
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    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    The Crater
    Laos is the most heavily bombed country on Earth per capita, and from 1963-1972, CIA secretly dropped more bombs here than the USA dropped during the whole of World War II. A total of 600.000 bombing missions, one every eight minute, every day for nine years, dropped over 2,5 million tons of bombs on the small southeast asian country. Even though the USA wasn't at war with Laos.
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    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    Chaymany and her daughter
    "You get used to all the bombs," Chaymany says. She lives in a small cottage with her husband, Sepan, and their newly born, unnamed daughter. "But when you have a new child, it makes you more nervous." "We tell them not to play in the forest and in the field and on the mountain. But still I worry what the bombs can do to her."
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    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    Scars
    A farmers leg is scarred from UXO's. Even though CIA's secret war ended over 40 years ago, an average of one person per day is maimed or killed by bombs contaminating Laos.
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    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    Building with bombs
    "When the bombing stopped, the villages was gone, so my uncle and the others used bombs to rebuild," Bounlot Ya explains. "Some of them were still active. The fields around the village were so full of them, we couldn't harvest, and so we starved. We started collecting the bombs, making spoons from the metal to sell." "People sometimes die, when they gather. But some have to do it, to earn money for food."
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    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    Tham Piu Cave
    A local visit the Tham Piu Cave to pay his respect. According to the laotian government, people from three villages hid from planes in the cave in 1968. After four days of bombing away the jungle, the entrance was made visible, and on the 24th of november, two american jets fired rockets inside. A total of 374 people were killed.
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    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    The Orphanage
    A boy rests in the orphanage in Luang Prabang, northern Laos. As parents are lost to UXO's, there are few places for the children to go, and many end up alone in the jungle, or on the city streets. Some girls take their chances and cross the border to Thailand, where most end up in prostitution.
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    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    UXO
    Over 80 million UXO's still contaminate Laos, and under 1% of the country has been cleared. Though de-mining organizations use original bomb maps, the yearly monsoon transport the bombs to new areas, where they hinder farming and socioeconomic development. As the de-mining process is estimated to take 150 years, the last victim of CIA's secret war hasn't been born yet.
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    Story: Unspoken Legacy
    Haimi
    Last year Haimi's parents were digging for the eatable roots of the maniok plant on the forest floor. They used a stick, but accidentally hit a UXO which detonated, killing them both instantly. Haimi's grandparents couldn't afford to take care of the little girl, and asked a local NGO for help. It worked, and today four-year-old Haimi has a new family.
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    Nikon INC. MediaStorm National Geographic Missouri Photo Workshop National Press Photographers Foundation University of Missouri
    Photography at the Summit True/False Film Fest