Obama pledges US help for Laos

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Declaring a “moral obligation’’ to heal the wounds of a secret war, President Barack Obama on Tuesday pledged help to clear away the 80 million unexploded bombs the US dropped on Laos a generation ago – more than 10 for every one of the country’s 7 million people.

Half a century ago, the United States turned Laos into history’s most heavily bombed country, raining down some two million tons of ordnance in a covert, nine-year chapter of the Vietnam War. The first US president to set foot in Laos while in office, Obama lamented that many Americans remain unaware of the “painful legacy’’ left behind by a bombardment that claims lives and limbs to this day.

“The remnants of war continue to shatter lives here in Laos,’’ Obama said before an audience of students, businessmen and orange-robed Buddhist monks who held up cellphones to snap photos of the American president. “Even as we continue to deal with the past, our new partnership is focused on the future,’’ he said.

To that end, Obama announced the US would double its spending on bomb-clearing efforts to $90 million over three years – a relatively small sum for the US but a significant investment for a small country in one of the poorer corners of the world. Obama plans to put a human face on the issue when he meets Wednesday in Vientiane with survivors of bombs that America dropped.

The president did not come to apologize. Instead, he called the conflict a reminder that “whatever the cause, whatever our intentions, war inflicts a terrible toll – especially on innocent men, women and children.’’