What is the story?
During the Vietnam War, between 1964 and 1973, American bombs rained on Laos in the so-called “Secret War”. More than 270 million bombies were dropped and it is estimated that 1.5 million people were killed. It made Laos the most heavily bombed country on
earth per capita in history. Up to 30% of the cluster munitions didn't detonate. Lao people are still suffering from the unexploded ordnance (UXO) forty years later. In the last decade, there have been approximately 300 new UXO casualties reported every year,
and 40% of them are kids.
Like Laos, today there are still countries suffering from cluster munitions, such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Georgia and Syria, to give just a few. Even though the international treaty, “Convention on Cluster Munitions”, took effect
on August 2010 to prohibit the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions, and require states to destroy existing stockpiles of the weapons, clear contaminated areas and assist survivors and affected communities, there are still countries
that have not ratified the Convention; and some financial institutions still invest in the manufacture of cluster munitions.
What are we going to do?
Corner Link is a start-up social enterprise established to reduce poverty in developing countries through working with the local people. The primary area of concern is the heavily bombed countries of Laos and Cambodia.
For this project, first of all, we will build up the website and host several joint talks/film features/photo exhibition
events in November 2013 to raise public awareness of the poverty in Laos and its heavily bombed history. Two films (“Surviving the Peace” and “Bombies”) will be shown. At the events, we will collect donations for two mine-clearing
organisations (MAG, Mines Advisory Group and NPA, Norwegian People’s Aid).
Secondly, through working with international NGOs (Cluster Munition Coalition and Stop Explosive Investment), we will build up the momentum for campaigns against three Taiwanese banks (Chang Hwa, Hua Nan and First Financial) which
are still financing cluster munitions production. This will probably take place in December, and keep going until these banks change their investment policy.
