When the idea of a bomb-free Laos became possible: An interview with Channapha Khamvongsa

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Unexploded ordnance (UXO) are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were dropped and still pose a risk of detonation, many decades after they were used or discarded. About one third of Laos remains contaminated with UXO left behind from a Secret War bombing campaign during the Vietnam War era, including about 80 million cluster munitions. The majority of victims are children, who mistaken them for toy balls. Continue Reading

COMMUNITY VOICES | Minnesota Kurds Want Independent Kurdistan, Worry for Relatives In Iraq

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Since the early 1990’s, a thriving community of Minnesota Kurds has grown  around the Moorhead area, and today numbers more than 1100.  Most of the Minnesota Kurds are from Iraqi KurdistanOn July 3, a group of Minnesota Kurds gathered at the offices of the Kurdish Community of America in Moorhead to talk about their lives in America, their worries for their relatives in Iraq, and their hope for an independent homeland as Iraqi Kurdistan faces attacks from ISIS extremists and deals with the challenges of harboring over a half million war refugees from Iraq and SyriaFor these Minnesota Kurds, their most immediate concerns are for the safety of their relatives back in Iraqi Kurdistan.  When ISIS extremists swept across northern Iraq less than a month ago, the Iraqi army crumpled and melted away, leaving the Kurdish Peshmerga army alone to face the ISIS fighters.So far the Peshmerga have held firm against ISIS, but relatives of the Moorhead Kurds talk of ISIS attacks along a 600 mile front every day.  All the Moorhead Kurds in the KCA office  have relatives serving on the Peshmerga front lines.  One relative was wounded in action near Kirkuk, hit in the abdomen by an ISIS sniper’s bullet.  Another Minnesota Kurd has a father who is  a Peshmerga general, serving near Shingal.  She shared her relative’s story about a Sunni sheikh who fled ISIS controlled territory and took refuge behind Peshmerga front lines.  ISIS demanded that the Peshmerga turn over the sheikh.  When her father and other Kurdish commanders refused, ISIS shelled Peshmerga positions, killing several Kurdish soldiers.Billions of American dollars were spent arming the Iraqi army.  Piles of those weapons were abandoned by Iraqi soldiers as they melted away, and relatives are telling the  Moorhead Kurds that  ISIS is now using this state-of-the-art heavy American weaponry against the often older and lighter arms of the Peshmerga.The Minnesota Kurds also reported that  Iraqi Kurdistan has taken in over 500,000 war refugees from both Syria and Iraq.  Often the refugees come from religiously and ethnically oppressed communities threatened by extremists with destruction:  Christians, Yazidis, Turkmen, Mandeans,  and even some of the few Jews left in Iraq have found shelter in Iraqi Kurdistan.  Relatives have told the Moorhead Kurds  that  the refugees are crowded into camps, schools, administrative buildings and shopping centers.  Combined with the war raging a short distance away, relatives are telling the Minnesota Kurds that  the Iraqi Kurdistan infrastructure is cracking under the stress: often there is no electricity and no running water, gas and other basic needs have tripled in price,  gas lines now can be over a mile long, and some basic foods have disappeared.The Moorhead Kurds said that while Iraqi Kurdistan has made great economic progress since the American interventions, the  continuous upheavals of rebellions, massacres, suicide bombings, ethnic cleansings and demolitions of mosques and churches in the rest of Iraq threaten to also drag down Iraqi Kurdistan.  For many Americans the Iraqi intervention has been a mistake and a disappointment.  But The Moorhead Kurds quickly pointed out that in one part of Iraq  the  American dream of a prosperous, tolerant, peaceful middle eastern democracy has largely been achieved:  Iraqi Kurdistan.The Moorhead Kurds said that Iraqi Kurdistan is the one part of Iraq to have used the opportunities provided by the American protection and intervention to build modern  institutions and infrastructures:  a functioning legislature, free elections, relative peace, and a booming economy with skyscrapers dotting the skyline of  Erbil and oil pipelines running from Iraqi Kurdistan through Turkey.  The Moorhead Kurds said this was in spite of the antagonism of the Iraqi Maliki government, who earlier this year cut off revenues for Iraqi Kurdistan.The Moorhead Kurds also stressed that The Iraqi Kurds  have a secular society:  that most are Sunni Moslems, but there are also Kurdish Christians, Yazidis, Shiites, and Jews.  They said that what bonds them together is their language and culture, not their religion. The Minnesota Kurds view  Iraqi Kurdistan as a Middle East island of toleration, moderation and democracy.Given the unending upheavels engulfing  the southern 2/3 of Iraq,  the Minnesota Kurds said that the only way  to protect this Kurdish success is for  Iraqi Kurdistan to break away from the rest of Iraq and become an independent nation.They said that many Minnesota Kurds want to go to Iraqi Kurdistan and help their families in this hour of need and hope.  But they also emphasized that they thought the best way for the Minnesota Kurds to help was not to pick up a gun, but to pick up a pen and tell others the story of the Iraqi Kurds, and urge elected officials to support an independent Kurdistan.The Minnesota Kurds in the KCA office also  told their own stories of how they ended up in Minnesota. Continue Reading

My run-in with art pieces in Laos

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The door was open. I dropped in, of course. It became a gallery. Paper, paint, textiles— all scattered across tables and floors. I quietly called across the room, hoping to not wake anyone up but still intrigued to step in like the curious explorer mae always scolded me as a child. No one answered back. I walked through a maze of art pieces hoisted along the walls from top to bottom and rows of old books and sheets of paper tightly and neatly stacked high on broken tables. The pieces spoke of an artist who had more than one love. There were influences of Monet, Picasso, and Van Gogh in the impressionist brush strokes and style of bright colors. This was an artist who was privileged enough to have studied from a Westernized paintbrush, but held a Lao eye to what the pieces had to say about the Lao consciousness. I sat on a bench, the only bench, and waited in anticipation. After 20 minutes of sitting and observing, no footsteps in the distance was heard. No artist. I walked out, but I was already inspired. Continue Reading

Swiftboating Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an opportunity to change the narrative on war

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The week just completed marked the 70th anniversary of D-Day (June 6) but the June 4, 2014, USA TODAY someone left in the McDonalds in Wahpeton ND, marks the true nature of “news” this past week. Indeed, the newspaper carried a long article on D-Day on page three; but the front page lead story was: “Bergdahl under new scrutiny”. A safe assumption: anyone who follows “news” knows who “Bergdahl” is, at least as portrayed in the media. Continue Reading