The legacy of a secret war means the poorest people are the most vulnerable to unexploded ordnance (UXO). Desperation drives a search for scrap metal and necessity forces the population to farm in contaminated areas.

As crutches and wheelchairs provide mobility to many affected, prosthetic legs give a chance to rebuild a normal life. However prosthetic legs need constant replacement; every year or two for adults and every three to six months for children. For some this is a simple routine and for others it’s an exercise far from reach. Medical treatment breaks a tiny budget and rehabilitation needs can be overlooked due to lack of founding.

Chanthava spent one week at Sepone District Hospital, but with no available medical supplies, she was transported to Savannaket. Chanthava spent another two weeks in Savannaket before her leg was amputated. “I don’t remember much but the pain for a long time after [the accident] and having no money for medicine.”

After the accident a clearing team removed 350 cluster bombs scattered across her farm. During the Vietnam War, Laos became the most heavily bombed country per capita, as the US, in their campaign to contain the spread of communism, attacked North Vietnamese supply routes that ran through Laos.

What is known as The Secret War, took place from 1964 to 1973, where an estimated 580, 000 US bombing missions and approximately two-million tons of explosives dropped. Of these, 260 million were cluster bombs, with an estimated 80 million failing to explode. As a result UXO maim an average of 300 people a year in Laos. Thus Laos the most

“I had to borrow money (5 million kip or about $625 US) from my sister, brother and cousin and it has taken me eight years to repay them.”

“My children had to leave school for a few years because I had no money for books or to support their education.”

Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) in Vientiane provide limbs, physiotherapy and rehabilitation to around 1500 people a year.  UXO survivors make up 40% of recipients and the rest seek COPE services due to polio, leprosy, accidents and disability.  COPE seeks to mitigate the impact caused by indiscriminate weapons, disease and injury on day-to-day life, assisting with ease of movement as well as occupational training.

The centre is the only provider of orthotic, prosthetic and rehabilitation services in Laos. Set up in 1997, when the extent of the landmine problem was becoming recognised and people united to form the Mine Ban Treaty, COPE formed in collaboration with government, international NGO’s and local people.

COPE founder Mike Boddington says the most important thing in setting up the centre was local ownership; expats would work on capacity building and teach skills to locals who would take over and run the centre.

“The cost of a limb has many variables, including transport there and back, accommodation, food and carers, materials for prosthesis, medical treatment and this will vary on the type of amputation,” Mr Boddington said.

“The average is $100 for the prosthesis and $300 in overheads, making it $600,000 to treat 1500 each year.”

“The government can’t afford the upkeep of $400 per person needing treatment when for example an immunization costs $1, they have to make difficult decisions.”

COPE addresses this by reimbursing the cost of travel and accommodation. Mike laments, many cannot come up with the costs in the first place. Aside from lacking resources, remoteness adds another element of difficulty.  An offshoot of this remoteness is resourcefulness, growing with the need for self-sufficiency. People either go without or make their own home-made limbs. These can range from a few pieces of wood and some nails, to welded metal contoured into something that resembles a foot, or a bamboo crutch fitted with cloth, many are ingenious but nonetheless uncomfortable, or heavy or awkward but these are survivors and they make do until there is help to COPE.

Articles I wrote during the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions:

http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/news/?id=2721

http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/news/?id=2730

http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/news/?id=2732 

It was during the First Meeting of States Parties to the Cluster Munitions Convention and the audience was made up of cluster bomb survivors, supporters, campaigners, COPE staff, government delegates and media. Everyone was invited to experience the sport and the Prince Mired Raad Al Hussein from Jordan and the Ban Advocates (campaigning survivors) were among those who took up the challenge.

COPE project coordinator Kerryn Clarke says the centre has regular basketball games.

“Sport puts people on an equal platform, you don’t see the wheelchair or missing limbs, all you see is talent – you walk away seeing ability not disability.”

Two Australian players, Liesl Tesch and Brad Ness, were there to show their support to the many unexploded weapon survivors.

Liesl was 19 when she fell off her bike and broke her back. After intensive physiotherapy and rehabilitation she is inspiring others with her strength and optimism. Brad is similarly high-spirited and forward-focused.

“I’ve always played sport, I used to swim and play footy and after the accident I never once thought I couldn’t continue doing what I love,” he said. “If anyone told me I couldn’t I just became more determined.”

Brad was working as a deckhand on a high-speed ferry between Rottnest Island and Fremantle. Late one night when he was checking all the ropes before launching, the Captain thought he heard the ‘all-clear’. As the ferry moved out the rope tightened around Brad’s ankle and ripped it clean off.

“When I was in hospital I counseled a few children who had lost limbs but I’ve never received any myself. I just wanted to get on with it, move forward and not let it beat me.”

“I look around here and see the injuries some have sustained and consider myself lucky.”

COPE offers free prosthetics, orthotics and rehabilitation to survivors and a space on the court where replacement limbs are forgotten. Where the playing field is leveled and all that matters is fitness, fun and basketball.

“In the beginning it was difficult because we didn’t know our rights but we want people to know that we are human beings and citizens of the state and we want access to services that others have.”

“We want to live with dignity so we are not second-hand people. Without this access we will be isolated and not capable to contribute to society.”

Firoz has become an advocate for victim assistance, campaigning for the rights of UXO survivors and he currently works with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines as a treaty implementation officer.

Under the Convention of Cluster Munitions victim assistance is not a choice it’s an obligation.  The standard is defined by in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which highlights respect for dignity, autonomy, accessibility and full and effective inclusion in society. Active participation from cluster bomb victims was integral to the formation of treaty aims.

“We don’t ask for anything more than our rights and we want imput in the way our needs are addressed,” said Firoz.

Social inclusion is key to making anyone feel like a valuable member of their society. If a percentage of the population is without access to fundamentals like education, health care, jobs and finance, their quality of life and growth of that society is stalled. Often it is not outright exclusion but lack of services and programs to enable inclusion. Aside from lacking resources, remoteness adds another element of difficulty.

“It is difficult to respond to needs of people living in remote areas and that’s very important because many survivors with disabilities live there because it’s cheaper but there are no services for them.”

Advocacy project manager, Handicap International Nepal, Kiran Wagle said there is growing awareness of the need for localised approaches to enhance social participation.

“We need to develop practical projects in the field to reach even the most vulnerable groups. Giving people the tools needed to forge their own future is essential to a happy and productive society.

“The main thing is empowerment. You need to achieve one goal and then the person will go on to achieve the rest. Empower the individual to help themselves and avoid long-term dependency.”

Firoz Ali Alizada discusses victim assistance with survivors and stakeholders.

Unexploded ordnance survivors at the First Meeting States parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Laos.

Survivors discuss creating regional groups to assess local needs.

Kiran Wagle gives a presentation on Handicap International's victim assistance strategies.

Cluster bombs are indiscriminate. When dropped they break open, releasing hundreds of bomblets that saturate the earth, slicing and maiming in a long lasting path of destruction. With a failure rate of 40 percent, these sub-munitions lay scattered across the earth making farming land unusable and daily movement dangerous for decades after war is done. They kill people who took no part, taking limbs and lives.

With the First Meeting States Parties in Laos fast approaching, 8- 12 November, Australia should make legislation inclusive of all aims set out by the Cluster Munitions Convention. Australia has been lagging to cement the agreement since signing in 2008.

Act for Peace, program director Patricia Garcia says we need to push the Australian Government to ratify the treaty.

“The disinvestment clause is significant because once the treaty is ratified no organisation or company can use funds to support manufacturers of cluster bombs,” she says.

“ANZ bank invests in cluster bomb producers which raises concerns over ethical investment and we need laws to prevent this.”

“We can’t help speculate that the government has been pressured to hold off because the legislation is taking so long,” Ms Garcia says.

With the forum for discussion between cluster bomb survivors, officials, campaigners and all those involved in the disarmament movement  nearing, countries should prepare to meet the following obligations: declaring and destroying stockpiled cluster munitions within eight years, identifying and clearing contaminated areas within 10 years and assisting affected communities and survivors to enjoy quality of life and fundamental human rights.

“Observer status at the meeting in Laos will not give an impression of being a responsible international citizen,” Ms Garcia says.

With 107 signatures and 43 ratifications it is time for Australia to get on board and back up words with action.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith declared earlier this year that “Australia is committed to a world free from cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war”. Campaigners have been urging the government to commit to the aims set by the treaty and with the bill being tabled this week, now is the time to pressure the government to get it right.

ANZ published a defense policy document in December 2007. It said, “ANZ’s defense policy explicitly prohibits the direct financing of controversial weapons including cluster munitions or anti- personnel mines.”  It goes onto say that cluster bomb producers are involved in many areas of manufacturing and, “While ANZ has committed to not directly finance the sale of either cluster munitions or anti-personnel mines, this does not exclude ANZ from providing general financial services to these defense companies more broadly.”

We need to send the message that this is unacceptable. A postcard campaign sent to ANZ’s chief executive, Mike Smith, urging the bank to stop financing cluster bomb producers is doing just this. The postcard shows six-year-old Abdullah who was sleeping when a cluster bomb flew through the window, blowing off his arm and maiming his tiny body (pictured).

An Iraqi boy, Abdullah, lives with the legacy of an indiscrimate weapons system which maims civilians decades after conflict has ended.

Act for Peace’s website says the average Australian pays $1230 per year in taxes for military spending, adding $27 billion to the total defense budget.

Yet only $1 per year goes to disarmament and mine clearance – $20 million to the AusAID budget.

In addition, the Australian Taxation Office signed a $280 million information technology deal with defense giant Lockheed Martin in September. To do business with a cluster bomb manufacturer at the height of the international movement to ban the indiscriminate weapon sends an irresponsible message about Australia’s position to the international community.

If you find this unacceptable voice your concerns to your local Member of Parliament. Now is our chance for change.

Related links:

This link has template letters urging MP’s and Governments to ratify the treaty.
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/campaign-resources/lobbying/

This one has template letters relating specifically to ethical investment and includes a template letter to banks.
http://www.stopexplosiveinvestments.org/take-action

Relevant sites:

http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/

http://www.actforpeace.org.au/Be_Informed/Latest_News/Stop_Explosive_Investments_in_Cluster_Munitions.aspx?cat=Advocacy%20&%20Campaigns%20[temporary]

http://apheda.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/canberra-times-pieces-on-cluster-munitions.pdf

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/asiapac/stories/201008/s2973663.htm

In Cambodia, a child’s right to a childhood can conflict with their immediate needs for survival. Many children are not given special privilege due to size or life stage – they cannot be afforded leisure or luxury because they must work to ensure they eat. In Cambodia the rights of the child can be overlooked or even violated.

The Organisation: Vulnerable Children’s Assistance Organisation

“When a monkey is immersed in flood water it will hold its infant above its head, even if it drowns itself. This is unless it knows the baby is too young to survive on its own, than it will let the baby go and save itself.”

Chea Pyden is the executive director of Vulnerable Children’s Assistance Organisation (VCAO), which he co-founded in 1994. VCAO’s main goals are the prevention of trafficking and exploitation, as well as the protection of children. They are building the case for children’s rights and run ten programs in five provinces in Cambodia.

He uses the above analogy to highlight a mother’s plight and continued, “This is like people; all mothers love their children and only want what is best, even if it means a home away from them. One woman, with no job, was supporting four children on her own and had to send them to work. She sent one to work with another family who then wanted to buy the child.”

Pyden explains the most integral program, run by VCAO is ‘Safe Net’. ‘Safe Net’ involves working with and within local communities, informing villagers of children’s rights and providing avenues for child protection through topics such as: trafficking, gambling, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, AIDS, economy, poverty and obligation. VCAO works in correspondence with teachers, parents and relatives to determine children in need. Pyden identifies two warning signs: children not going to school and/or working far from the village.

Boys and girls are both trafficked but trafficking of girls to places like Thailand, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville is a big issue. To address this, VCAO teaches vocational skills such as sewing, salon, cooking, crafts and weaving, according to what is most needed in the community.

“Teaching the wrong skill can result in more trafficking, so VCAO asks what the child enjoys and what will be most useful to the community,” Pyden said.

Pyden explained that sometimes children are not supported by their community and must be taken out of their environment and put into programs and while some police are helpful, many are apathetic.

“Sometimes I don’t think they understand their obligation,” Pyden said.

“They don’t care that father is hitting his children,” he said, “Or father tells them, ‘this is my problem not yours’.”

“There is often a lack of knowledge from the top level to the grass roots,” he said.

Cambodia is still emerging from 40 years of conflict, during which development was stalled and even undone by the Khmer Rouge regime. Intellectuals, professionals and former government officials, as well as their immediate and extended families were killed by this brutal group. Simply wearing glasses, being religious, having lighter skin or showing signs of wealth were warrant for murder under their administration. The city was evacuated and its population were forced to live in labour camps in the countryside, where many starved. All up, about two million people (roughly the population of Brisbane) perished in those formidable years.

Pyden’s parents were among those killed.

He told of the ramifications of this period on education and civil society, highlighting that without able and educated children there can be no development in the future. VCAO is working in partnership with an NGO committee on child protection and juvenile justice laws and presents reports to national assembly in hope of creating laws that protect children.

Pyden said many families move from the country to the city with no skill or education and end up forced to live and scavenge at the dump.

The Children of Stung Meanchey

VCAO runs a school on the outskirts of Stung Meanchey Dumpsite. The school has been running since 1997, with a preschool and a program called ‘non-for-more’ education, for all age groups. The school offers access to clean water and basic medical care and is managed by field supervisor So Phalla.

It is an overwhelming and unforgettable place.

Crusty gold flakes line the space between the children’s nose and lips.

Most roam and run around ignoring their runny nose and chesty splutter but one boy is curled up in the shade. His face is scrunched up.

A screaming, bare-bottomed baby is carried in by a volunteer. The mother left her in grandmother’s care while she goes to the new dumpsite to forage. The baby was found alone. She is passed to Phalla who tries to feed her rice gruel while another volunteer is sent for milk.

The milk arrives. Phalla opens the can of sterilised milk, adds some sugar and spoons. The baby spits. She spoons, the baby spits. Spoon. Spit. Eventually the baby swallows and at last there is quiet. Soon the grandmother comes in and takes over. As she leaves Phalla hands her a bag, full of tins of milk.

Phalla prepares milk for the baby

Sothorn Taing started at the VCAO school when he was 11 years old. Taing was taken to school by the VCAO outreach team, which find scavenging children and assist them to become students. He said working at the dump was hard work but he had to help support his family.

Sothorn Taing

Now 25, he has been volunteering as an aid and teacher at the school since 2006.

“I want to say thank you to the people here and help these kids like my teachers helped me,” he said.

Sothorn Taing with the baby that was brought in

His six siblings have also stopped collecting and are going to school.

The children at play

The kids run to the food van which comes twice a week

There are 700 families living at Stung Meanchey Dumpsite. Chantha Phorn, a teacher at the VCAO school, says every year people have been crushed after climbing into the dump trucks. Hearing this you can’t help but ponder the desperation that drives you inside the mouth of a metal beast. But after listening to the stories of these people, there is nothing to wonder, only a knowing that in their situation you would do the same.

The houses are colourful, against a clear sky but the ground is speckled white, grey and black with rubbish. Walking through the lanes of huts that make up the community, there is not much room to move between them. There is an array of discarded bric-a-brac under the houses, a mangy dog looks for food, while a family picks through some peanuts they have found. You can’t help feel guilty, remembering the peanuts that await you on the tables, at every restaurant you go to. But you must remind yourself this guilt is misguided.

Here are three short profiles.

Sohn Doit and his wife Atsarrom have nine children and have been living at the dump for five years. Doit was resting after cutting his hand on a can, while collecting the previous day. Atsarrom had been busy gathering cardboard and was carrying a one-meter-tall stack on her head.

Atsarrom Doit

Hom Croit's daughter

Hom Croit has three children and the youngest go to the VCAO school. His wife died while giving birth and one week later his baby daughter died too. A hospital visit is beyond reach and instead babies are delivered here in their homes. Croit has been living at the dumpsite for four years.

Chol Sarut was hit by a garbage truck while collecting rubbish behind it. She had to have a major hip operation. The garbage company gave her $300 (U.S.) for her surgery and she had to borrow the remaining $450 needed. She has been paying her debt back for three years and still owes $100.

Chol Sarut's Mother

The Families and the Future

Walking through a slum area in Kandal Province – narrow passages, colourful clothes hang on lines, contrasting with grey stone walls, motorbikes come out of nowhere around the many corners and the scent of spiced rice mixes with the smell of incense and cement.

The first house consists of a tarp and bed frame. Chea Doeun undoes the tarp to open up her home.

Doeun has two children and says they have been scavenging at the dumpsite since they were about five years old. Asked how she feels about them working, she says she is happy when they collect a lot.

Doeun says, as a child she did laundry to help the family and could not go to school. Now she sews to support herself but hopes her children will be able to get a higher education and a good job.

The second house has walls and a small cooking area. Khun Norn nurses a baby. She has five children. She begins to cry. Norn explains her daughter was hit by a car the previous night, while selling water on the street and her leg was broken in three places.

All her children go to school but two work selling water. They started after their father died. Norn is still not sure why he died but said he had the flu and didn’t wake up one morning.

Khun Norn and her family

Norn went to school until grade three but dropped out to earn money. She began selling fish. When she moved to Phnom Penh she worked carrying bricks and mixing cement at a construction site and says she will go back to support her children and mother in law when her baby is old enough. She hopes her children will study hard and do well for themselves.

Norn was visibly embarrassed that her young children had to work. It is clear from speaking to these mothers, they only want the best for their children. Doesn’t any mother? Sadly, many struggle to provide the basics, let alone the best.

Vulnerable Children’s Assistance Organisation website: http://www.vcao.org.kh/

Indiscriminate weapon systems continue to afflict the people of Cambodia and the limbless survivors reveal the legacy – a lingering reminder of the decades of conflict and civil war.

The History

He is perched on the wooden step he uses to climb into his wheelchair. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, we meet at eye-level. Fifty-year-old Tun Channereth or ‘Reth’, as he is known to friends, is a double amputee – one of Cambodia’s many casualties. He wears the legacy of his country’s conflict as a declaration against the weapons, which continue to destroy long after the war is over.

You can’t travel far in Cambodia without seeing limbless men, women and children – a testament to the ongoing trauma in the wake of war. Decades after the conflict, innocent people are still bearing the brunt of its legacy.

Reth explains that many people were forced to risk life and limb just to get staples like water and it has taken a deadly toll. In Cambodia, about one in every 280 people is an amputee and another 420 are killed by unexploded weapons every year.

“The whole country was full of landmines, this was especially bad because people had no jobs and they had to go to the forest to get food and where they were going anti-personal landmines were waiting,” Reth says.

“More than 40 years of civil war and conflict have left Cambodia very poor, we have no industry but [still] many weapons which kill our own people,” he says without animosity.

Mine Advisory Group (MAG) is a humanitarian organisation that clears land of lethal remnants of war and has been operating since 1989 in 35 countries.

MAG Cambodia program manager, Jamie Franklin says Cambodia is among the top four most landmine affected countries, with 200, 600 square kilometres still to be cleared.

“We do not have the ability to clear landmines in relation to need, so communities often use land until there is an accident,” he says. “There is a choice: not enough food to feed the family or a possible landmine accident.”

Landmines were planted by Vietnamese, United States, Cambodian and Khmer Rouge forces throughout many decades of fighting. During the Khmer Rouge’s reign, Reth’s family fled their village in Battambang, adding to the droves of refugees heading to Thailand, which was seen as a place of refuge and hope. However, the United Nations had a policy to avoid supporting possible soldiers – they were only feeding women and children. Sadly, it was the threat of starvation that drove many to take arms against Vietnam. Reth became a soldier in 1979. In 1982 he stood on a landmine.

The Movement

Reth is both victim and activist and has been a powerful voice in the movement to ban the use, manufacture, trade and stockpiling of landmines.

“It is very cold in European countries and people protect their bodies with clothes and blankets but I always wear these clothes,” Reth says indicating his shorts and t-shirt.

“Why? Because the people living in a bad situation need support, they need food and medicine and peace and this is how I show people around the world,” he says.

A photograph of Reth wearing these clothes in Oslo, 2007, next to fellow campaigner John Rodsted, who wears a jumper and jeans, is not easily forgotten.

The photograph marks ten years of the Mine Ban Treaty being in force. The 1997 treaty stems from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines – a coalition of organisations seeking to create a landmine free world. In those ten years 40 million landmines have been destroyed and in their elimination, thousands of lives saved.

In 1992 a group of people got to work. In 1997 they created the Mine Ban Treaty. Later that year they won the Nobel-Peace Prize. Photojournalism is only a sliver of John Rodsted’s trade. He and partner Mette Elliassuen were at the forefront of the first Ban Bus, which toured America in six weeks, doing 100 presentations in over 75 cities, taking their message from Madison Square to Congress. Through a union of dedicated individuals and a diversity of skills the Ban Bus shone its headlights on the legacy that landmines leave.

“We took it to the streets and stood on any soap box we could get onto,” John says. “It was the most successful disarmament treaty, revealing a new way of civil society doing business with government and it proved that the average person does have a voice.”

During the 1990s the global annual casualty toll was estimated to be around 30, 000.

In 2001, it was between 15,000 and 20,000.

In 2008, the Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor, which provides data on unexploded weapons, found there were just over 5000 casualties – about 1300 deaths and 3900 people injured.

According to their research – given the high number of casualties likely never reported, the number of landmine survivors could be anywhere between 300,000 to 400,000.

Witnessing the work Reth does, the amount of landmine survivors that need support is clear. Reth works through the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) where, among other humanitarian projects, he makes and distributes wheelchairs.

“Our policy is that all people who need wheelchairs or crutches must be given them, whether they can pay for them or not,” he says.

On a hot and dusty January day, John drives a JRS van, with Reth as co-pilot and Griffith University teachers and students in tow, setting out to meet some of the people Reth has been working with.

Here, we hear Toek Vet’s story. With Reth translating, Vet explains how she stepped on a mine on her way to school and never returned to her studies. Now 43, she collects material from the forest to make baskets. When we arrive she is summoned from the surrounding woodland and soon appears on crutches. Vet has four children, the eldest have married and moved away. Having lost her husband to malaria, she raises the youngest on her own. She subsists on rice and salt and when I meet Vet, she has not eaten for three days. It takes her one day to collect material (providing it is available) and one day to weave a single basket for which she gets 2000 Riel (about 50 US cents). If the moonlight is good she stays awake to have it ready for market the following day.

Having crutches or a wheelchair allows landmine survivors to carrying out their daily activities and this mobility can mean survival when you are straddling the line between subsistence and starvation.

Reth pioneered a chair especially for Cambodians. The ‘Mekong Chair’ has three wheels for off-road access to fields and rice paddies and it is made from wood and bicycle parts, making it simple to repair.

Heading north toward the villages, from Siem Reap, we see first-hand, the indestructibility of the ‘Mekong Chair’, when it flies out the back door of the van. We hear a click as the back door swings open and turn to see cars and bikes swerve around Reth’s wheelchair, until it careens off the road and stops in front of a tree, 30 metres away. This is one tough chair.

At another village we meet a Mekong Chair recipient, Mean Koes, who lost both legs, his right arm and eye to a landmine in 1990 while gathering food. He had been working as a soldier since 1986 and was near the Cambodian/Thailand border at the time. Now 39, both his parents are dead and he has no land of his own. He does not know how he will support his family in the future. His wife works in the rice fields for less than $1 US a day but is becoming weak from exhaustion. Koes says he is upset not only for himself but all Cambodians affected by the conflict and the legacy it left behind. He was close to death and although shy about his injuries and uncertain of his future, he says talking about his experience gives him hope.

During the interview, Reth speaks to Koes in Khmer for a long time. Koes laughs a lot, which I later learn is a sign of discomfort and a way of diffusing difficult questions. Channereth can empathise with Koes better than most, having experienced a similar kind of trauma. Refusing to let his own injuries stifle him, he challenges and encourages others to rise to their potential. He is testament that disability is not inability.

The Future

While progress is being made, the fight is not over. Pulled from John Rodsted’s blog at TheBanBus.org are the words of Winston Churchill: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end but it might just be the end of the beginning”.

John says the Mine Ban Treaty only partly addresses the legacy issue. The Ban Bus team has been working tirelessly with the Cluster Munitions Coalition on an international treaty against the use of cluster bombs.

“We knew in the back of our minds, it was a job half done and while we wanted to include cluster bombs in the landmine treaty process we knew it would have made the language of the treaty too complicated,” Rodsted said.

“The reality is, if you use these weapons you create a legacy, you have a weapon system that by its very nature is going to create a dangerous environment for everybody who ventures onto that land, decades after the conflict has ended.”

Jamie Franklin from MAG says 40 percent of all air ammunitions do not explode on impact, leaving a huge amount undetonated and in an unstable state. United States military records were released in 2007 after a twenty-year lock down and revealed millions of air ammunitions were dropped in South-east Asia during the Vietnam War.

“Laos was the most heavily bombed country but Cambodia is not far behind,” Franklin said.

“I hope that the cluster bomb campaign will be as successful as the landmine treaty in mobilising government.”

Proponents of cluster bombs claim they have a technical fix, which ensures they self-destruct if they do not detonate initially.

Incredulous, John explains the ineffectual rate of the self-destruct mechanism, on top of the 40 percent failure to detonate in the first place. He is on a mission to prove this point.

The 34-day-war in Lebanon, 2006, was a springboard for finding active cluster bombs after Israel dropped four million of them in the final 72 hours.

“I went looking and found them absolutely everywhere,” he says.

The footage he produced, which can be found on You Tube under John Rodsted M-85, proved any self-destruct-defence illegitimate and was the starting point of a new treaty.

“We are talking about a legacy which condemns well after the conflict is over and by taking these two weapon systems out of the equation, you will address the legacy issue,” John says.

The Ban Bus began its second tour in 2008 – a 10 000 km journey around Europe, from the Balkans to Oslo. With Mette coordinating, John public-speaking and both creating media output, as well as survivors, support staff and the reinforcement of non-government organisations and demonstraters – the Ban Bus is truly a synnergy of efforts.

“We are talking about a legacy which condemns well after the conflict is over and by taking these two weapon systems out of the equation, you will address the legacy issue,” John says.

“In Kosovo in 1999, Serbian forces used landmines and NATO used cluster bombs and as a result, after the war, development in the region was stalled,” he says, “On the other hand, Indonesia refrained from using these weapon systems in East Timor and although there was a lot of fighting and people were killed, when the conflict was over they got on with redevelopment very quickly.”

Opening for signing in 2008, the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) entered into force in August 2010 to become binding international law. The treaty is also known as the ‘Oslo process’ as Norway was the sponsoring nation where the convention took root. Delegates from more than 100 countries, civil society, non-government-organisations, survivors and advocates gathered in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, in November for the historic first meeting to the convention. The CCM is the most significant disarmament treaty of this decade, second only to the Mine Ban Treaty of the 90s. These treaties began as voices of dissent.

Tun Channereth would be smiling at this, as he hammers away in his workshop. His message and the message of all victims of these indiscriminate weapon systems are being heard.

“We need to understand what the people are wounded by – by bombing, by missiles, by nuclear weapons, by anti-personal landmines, by cluster ammunitions.”

“Who is dead? Who is suffering?”

“The people from the grass-roots.”

“I am one survivor on behalf of the people around the world, who asks you to grow the flower in your heart, so our kids can run freely and play.

“This is the way to rebuild the world.”

Tun Channereth talks to a landmine survivor

John and the runaway chair

John Rodsted and Tun Channereth

Toek Vet emerges from the forest

Toek Vet

Mean Koes

Mean Koes and Tun Channereth

Cambodia’s annual casualty figures: http://www.vietnam-travel-guide.net/landmines-cambodia.html

2001 global figures: http://lm.icbl.org/index.php/content/view/full/18734

2008 global figures: http://lm.icbl.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/2009/es/mine_casualties.html#casualties_in_2008

Global landmine survivors: http://lm.icbl.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/2004/findings.html

The risks of a cervical cancer vaccine, distributed in a mass immunisation program, are not explained before being administered, despite a slew of potential side-effects, say Gold Coast students.

The Gardasil vaccine is given without information on possible side-effects and girls younger than 18 are vaccinated without parental consent, which Dr Michael Gold immunologist for the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee said is bad practice.

“Health professionals should always explain side-effects to patients or their parents,” Dr Gold said.

Alyssa Martin, who was 16 when she got the vaccine, said she was not warned or given any information regarding risks.

“I just walked in, sat down, they did the needle and I left, there was no explanation of the vaccine and my parents didn’t have to give permission,” she said.

“Although I didn’t experience any serious side-effects, I was surprised by how painful it was.

“It felt like they put concrete in my arm, it was really heavy and sore for ages after,” Alyssa said.

Dr Steve Hambleton, Vice President of the Australian Medical Association, said 16-year-olds can give consent but relevant information should be distributed.

“Permission should come from both the individual and their parents, but at 16 girls can make their own decisions provided consent is fully informed,” Dr Hambleton said.

Rachel Caldwell, Health Director at Griffith University said girls should be given a safety checklist about existing medical conditions and that risks should be discussed before they are given the vaccine.

“It does enable a more informed consent if you are able to explain possible side-effects to clients before a procedure is completed,” Ms Caldwell said.

The right to informed choice is reflected by Gardasil manufacturer Merck  &  Co. in a safety report: “Vaccine information is required to be given with each vaccination to the patient, parent, or guardian, regarding benefits and risks associated with vaccination.”

Opal Murphy-Moore was 16 when she started the series of injections and said she didn’t need parental consent.

“I wasn’t told anything about the vaccine but I don’t think they would give it to us if it was bad,” Opal said.

As of August this year about 1400 adverse reactions were reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

While most are considered ‘mild’ or ‘moderate’, including headaches, dizziness, nausea, lethargy, fever, pain and swelling at injection site, fainting and vomiting, there have been 14 cases of anaphylaxis and 126 reports of hives, as well as a ‘small number of cases’ of neurological symptoms such as multiple sclerosis.

Professor Ian Frazer, Gardasil developer said he started working with human papillomaviruses (HPV), which can lead to cervical cancer, in 1989 and cultivated the vaccine for two years.

“These vaccines have the potential to prevent about 70% of the 20,000 abnormal pap smears that require surgical treatment in Australia each year,” he said.

Professor Frazer said Merck & Co. started clinical trials in 1998 and Gardasil was licensed in America in 2006 after sufficient safety analysis.

An article by the Australia Vaccination Network raises questions over the validity of the clinical trials which were funded ‘wholly or in part by the vaccine manufacturer’.

It said investigators dismissed 17 deaths and 102 serious adverse reactions during the trials as unrelated to the vaccine and that aluminium was used in the placebo which ‘falsely inflates the adverse-event data of the ‘placebo’ group’ making the vaccine appear safer by comparison.

A report released by Merck & Co. said deaths and side-effects during the trials are consistent with that of a healthy population and that vaccine responses are of parity with placebo reactions.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in America said 11, 000 girls and women were involved in the trials which Griffith Health Director, Rachel Caldwell said was deemed safe enough for approval.

“This sample size was considered enough to approve the vaccine for use within Australia,” she said.

Dr Gold, a specialist immunologist said the sample size is inadequate to determine rare reactions in the general population.

America’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reaction System (VAERS) shows 15,591 side-effects have been reported and a rare and life-threatening auto-immune condition known as Guillain-Biare Syndrome accounted for 51 of these cases.

Judicial watch is investigating adverse reactions to Gardasil in America and revealed that 47 girls and women died after having the vaccine, ranging from 3hrs to about 9 months later, with causes including blood clots, seizures, anaphylactic shock and reasons unknown.

The CDC said only 27 deaths have been confirmed, the remaining 20 unable to be followed up due to incomplete contact information.

They said girls who died of blood clots were at higher risk due to smoking or taking the contraceptive pill and that no pattern can be found directly linking the vaccine to the deaths.

Dr Gold said delayed reactions are difficult to monitor and Australia is setting up data linkage schemes to demonstrate links between reactions and vaccine exposure.

“Monitoring in most countries is a matter of getting people to report reactions but when side-effects occur two months later it is difficult to relate the vaccine to the reaction,” he said.

“The only way to determine a causal relationship is with statistical evidence and we are working on a database system at the moment,” Dr Gold said.

According to VAERS there were 113 reports of girls getting HPV after having the vaccine and Dr Gold said this is not caused by the vaccine.

“There will be a background rate of girls who will develop genital lesions regardless of having the vaccine, but people blame the vaccine itself,” he said.

Dr Gold said girls’ fainting after having the Gardasil injection was not a reaction to the vaccine.

“Firstly, it is quite a painful injection and secondly, it is a mass-vaccine, given to large groups of girls in the school program who are predisposed to a complex with needles,” Dr Gold said.

Lindsay Stainton, Nurse at Griffith Medical Center said girls faint due to ‘teenage hysteria’.

“It is quite common for girls to faint after getting a needle, regardless of the injection and mostly they just forget to breathe,” she said.

“You put a group of girls together and they will feed off each other and at the end of the day it is totally unnecessary,” Ms Stainton said.

Alyssa Martin said the fact girls are fainting should be taken seriously.

“I think it is often taken too lightly when girls admit to a fear of needles or feel they might faint, it’s not a plea for attention or drama but a real concern,” she said.

“My best friend in high school fainted after getting a vaccination and it was horrible,” Alyssa said.

Student, Rachel Barnes said when she was in high school girls got hysterical, fainted, cried and hyperventilated during vaccination programs.

Rachel chose not to have the injection and questions the long-term safety of Gardasil.

“We will be the first generation receiving it and even if it is proven safe, we won’t realise the long-term effects for years to come,” she said.

“There needs to be a choice and medical practitioners need to inform patients of all side-effects.

“They need to take people aside and make them completely aware as part of their professional responsibility,” Rachel said.

Dr Hambleton said queries about mismanaged vaccine administration should be directed to schools were the vaccines were given.

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An innovative road-trauma website called Share My Story is an effective tool in combating the road toll said a spokesperson from the Department of Transport.

The campaign, which conveys about 250 stories online, was designed to highlight the ongoing effects of road trauma, through the voices of survivors, victims and grieving family and friends.

The spokesperson said the campaign’s impact was measured by audience research, which showed 70 percent of respondents were aware of the campaign and 95 percent support it.

She said most accidents are preventable, relating to individual actions and hopes the trauma felt by some will be a lesson for others.

“Next time you get behind the wheel, hear of a road crash or read the road toll statistics, remember the stories behind the numbers,” the spokesperson said.

“Road trauma doesn’t stop at the crash scene.”

The spokesperson said the ‘Share My Story’ campaign, allows the road safety message to be permanently available and independent of advertising.

There have been 273 road fatalities this year and the message from Transport Minister Rachel Nolan is, “Drive safely, slow down, buckle up, drive sober and don’t drive tired or distracted.”

An online opinion poll shows more than 6560 people support those who have shared their stories through the website.

Pamela Meacle shared her story, after being struck down on a pedestrian crossing in 1992.

She wrote, “After being told I would probably never walk again and my brain damage could leave me in a vegetative state, I am walking again and have completed a Diploma of Community Welfare Work.”

Today Ms Meacle is coordinator for a road trauma counselling service.

She said there was no support when she needed it and thinks the ‘Share My Story’ website shows people they are not alone and helps in the recovery of victims and their families.

Ms Meacle said she holds no anger at the person who hit her and that it is her responsibility to be aware of her surroundings.

“Too often we think because there is a crossing we are safe but with every right there is a responsibility,” she said.

Of the 273 road-related deaths this year, 34 were pedestrians.

Ms Meacle said she was nearly struck down on a pedestrian crossing again recently.

“I had to jump out of the way, I put my hands on her bonnet and she didn’t even stop,” she said.

The Department of Transport encourages anyone affected by road trauma to share their story at www.sharemystory.qld.gov.au.

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Pimpama residents are not convinced by recycled water, despite a community open day held yesterday at Pimpama Water Treatment Plant, to inform locals of its benefits.

Local resident, Stephanie Gorecki said she will not use recycled water.

“I’m concerned about hormones and antibiotics which are put into the garden and then build up in the soil and I don’t want to grow my vegetables in that,” she said.

“What would happen if a child drank from the garden hose and ingested some?”

“I’ve got a lot of doubts about the safety of the water,” Ms Gorecki said.

The $80 million treatment plant was built to cope with future population growth in the region, which is expected to increase eight fold by 2056.

Chair of the Water Management Committee, Councillor Daphne McDonald said to ensure water security in the area, the council must diversify sources and employ a holistic approach to water management.

Cr McDonald said there are checks and balances in place and that the recycled water is ‘of a higher quality than people drink in some countries.’

“Just as we’ve learnt from other councils, we’re leading the way for others to follow and water security is something we need to take very seriously,” she said.

“We need to be prepared for drought and that means looking at innovative sustainability projects,” Cr McDonald said.

The plant is expected to reduce use of drinking water for outdoor purposes by 84 percent and is just one step in the $200 million Pimpama Coomera Waterfuture Master Plan.

Local, Filip Petreski will receive recycled water later this year and said he will mainly use it to water the garden.

“I think it’s a great investment and that more councils should take up this strategy,” he said.

The recycled water can be used for non-drinking and outdoor purposes including irrigation, car washing, cleaning and toilet flushing.

Gold Coast City Council outlined public-responsibility in using recycled water.

The report said, although recycled water is Class A+, the highest quality non-drinking water, it should not be used to wash clothes, fill pools, is not for kitchen purposes and should not be drunk by people or given to animals.

More than 3000 homes, businesses and schools in the Pimpama area have been fitted with purple plumbing for easy identification and will receive recycled water when the plant is activated later this year.

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The World Transplant Games (WTG) kicked off yesterday with giant beach balls along Broadbeach shorelines drawing attention to organ and tissue donation.

Chris Thomas, Chairman of the 17^th WTG, said it is a wonderful celebration but hopes it will be effective in raising awareness.

“Right now people will be asking themselves what’s going on over there, and that’s what we need,” he said.

“Australia has very low organ donation rates.”

“People don’t like to think about mortality and are complacent in taking steps to register,” Mr Thomas said.

Australian competitor, Max Mohr, a registered donor and organ recipient said the WTG is important in shining light on life-saving donations.

“I left the corporate world to focus on the rehabilitation of transplant patients, I want them to know it’s not the end,” Max said.

“I never imagined I could be so fit, I want to share the gift and tell as many people as I can,” he said.

Max was on the waiting list for 18 months before finding a donor and said everyday is a blessing.

Volunteer, Alex Eave wanted to support the WTG and help spread the message.

“The more people who register the more lives can be saved,” she said.

There were about 1800 people on official transplant waiting lists in January 2009 and in 2008 less than 850 people were given transplants.

Australian artists, John Foreman and Tania Doko released a song called ‘Our Victory’ at the WTG Opening Ceremony with lyrics such as, ‘never dared to dream I could look beyond tomorrow’ and ‘we are living proof that anything is possible.’

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