Agent Orange Victims Sue Monsanto

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http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11638

 

Agent Orange Victims Sue Monsanto

by Tom Fawthrop, Special to CorpWatch

 

November 4th, 2004

 

 

Tran Anh Kiet's feet, hands and limbs are twisted and deformed. He is

21 years old, but trapped inside a body that appears to belong to a 15

year old with a mental age of around six. He has to be spoon-fed and

writhes often in evident frustration. All his attempts at speech are

confined to plaintive and pitiful grunts.

 

In Kiet's small community in Cu Chi district, about 45 kilometers from

Ho Chi Minh city, south Vietnam, his story is all too common - indeed

the villagers have a name for young people like him: Agent Orange babies.

 

Some 79 million liters of Agent Orange herbicides were dropped on the

jungles of Vietnam from 1961-1971 in an attempt to defoliate the

rainforest and deny any cover for the VietCong guerilla forces

resisting the United States occupation of Vietnam.

 

Today in Vietnam there are 150,000 other children like Kiet, whose

parents allege their birth defects are the result of exposure to Agent

Orange during the war, or the consumption of dioxin-contaminated food

and water since 1975.

 

The Vietnamese government estimates that three million Vietnamese were

exposed to these chemicals during the war, and that at least 800,000

suffer serious health problems today as a result.

 

In February 2004, the newly -formed Vietnamese Association of Victims

of Agent Orange (VAVA) filed a class action law suit in a New York

court, against Monsanto and 36 other manufacturers of the poisonous

chemical.

 

The plaintiffs and their lawyers deliberately chose the very same

court that had previously presided over the only previous lawsuit

brought against Agent Orange manufacturers, by US war veterans.

Indeed, the same judge - Jack Weinstein - is currently hearing

pre-trail arguments in the case.

 

The original lawsuit was settled in 1984, when seven American chemical

companies paid out $180 million to 291,000 people over a period of 12

years. The settlement was reached after Weinstein persuaded the

companies to buy themselves out of protracted litigation. But the

chemical companies refused to accept liability, as part of the

settlement, claiming the science still does not prove that Agent

Orange was responsible for any of the medical horrors its name has

long brought to mind.

 

Babies with two heads

 

The first generation of victims were the war veterans and farmers, who

lived off land exposed to the chemical clouds during the war. The

second generation of victims were their sons and daughters, and today

their children, the third generation, are also suffering similar

health problems as their parents and grandparents.

 

Inside the Tu Du hospital in Saigon, grotesque birth defects - babies

born with two heads, other with short stumps in place of arms or legs

- are a routine sight. Dr Nguyen Thi Phuong Tan, the specialist in

coping with the new-born victims also keeps a padlocked room of

well-preserved horrors - jars of deformed fetuses that never made it

as evidence.

 

" You can't imagine the state of these children in Can Gie district,

they can't speak, they are paralyzed, they have only the life of a

vegetable, " says Nguyen Phuoc Hoang, a researcher who used to work for

the Environment Committee of Ho Chi Minh city.

 

The third generation of casualties includes those who live in the

vicinity of former US military bases such as Bien Hoa. Agent Orange

was stored in large quantities on these military bases.

 

Dr Arnold Schecter, a leading expert in dioxin contamination in the

US, sampled the soil there in 2003,and found it to contained dioxin

levels that were 180 million times above the safe level set by the US

environmental protection agency. It is known as one of some 30

hotspots an environmental disaster area in urgent need of

decontamination. Yet almost 30 years after the war nothing has been

done about it.

 

More compelling scientific evidence was unearthed by a five year study

conducted in the late-1990s by a Canadian environmental firm, Hatfield

Consultants, working in collaboration with Vietnamese scientists that

focused international attention on the extent of the contamination.

 

Hatfield took extensive samples from soil, water, animals, and people,

and tested for minute concentrations of the active poisons in Agent

Orange near the Ho Chi Minh Trail just south of Quang Tri province, in

the A Luoi valley.In 2002 the results were made public. The

researchers found " a consistent pattern of food-chain contamination by

Agent Orange dioxin...in the air base area, which included soils,

fishpond sediment, cultured fish, ducks, and humans. "

 

Adding Insult to Injury

 

In June 2001 Monsanto was accused by farmers of Ninh Thuan province of

pressuring them to use genetically modified seeds that resulted in

corn and maize crop failures and economic ruin.

 

Monsanto representatives responded with demands and threats urging the

authorities to take action against by the state-run Nguoi Lao Dong

newspaper (The New Worker) in Saigon, which printed a story about the

farmers complaints, based on research done by social scientist Bui Dac

Hai.

 

Agent Orange activists were outraged that Monsanto had returned to

haunt Vietnam. Former wartime ambassador Madame Nguyen Ngoc Dung, told

CorpWatch: " We have strongly criticized officials responsible for

granting a license " (to Monsanto).

 

The activists say that Monsanto has been assiduously cultivating

technocrats inside the ministries of trade, investment and planning,

who prefer to put the war totally behind them and believe that any

campaign over Agent Orange undermines good trading relations with the

US, and is therefore bad for business.

 

Another faction of government officials, which includes including

prime minister Pham Van Khai, backed by the war veterans argue that

economic concerns must be tempered with humanitarian respect for the

victims and that Monsanto should be held accountable for their suffering.

 

The success of the Agent Orange victims campaign has caused major

differences between the two factions. One communist party intellectual

says he believes that " the humanitarian faction in the party is

gaining momentum and the chances of driving Monsanto out of Ho Chi

Minh city are improving. "

 

A Monsanto spokesperson told CorpWatch that the company has been

selling four varieties of hybrid corn seed since 1995 in addition to

herbicides including Roundup and Lasso brands but that " Monsanto has

no biotechnology crops on the market there. "

Campaign picks up steam

 

The Agent Orange cause has been picking up steam in the last few

years. Vietnam Red Cross had launched a humanitarian appeal in 1998

for special support for its Agent Orange Fund. In January 2004 a

activist campaign was launched in Hanoi with the setting up of

Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange.

 

Another recently-formed non-profit, the Peace and Development

Foundation, headed by former foreign minister of South Vietnam, Madame

Nguyen Thi Binh, is part of a highly successful campaign to mobilize

people at home and abroad in support of Vietnamese lawsuit and the

victims demand for justice and compensation.

 

Vietnam Television has just broadcast a new documentary on the

subject. The government has set aside August 10th as an official

commemoration 'Agent Orange Day' in support of the victims. (August

10th 1961 was the date that the very first cargo of Agent Orange

defoliant was dropped on the forest around Kontum in the Central

highlands). On September 10th 2004, Thanh Nien newspaper reported the

foreign ministry had expressed support for the Agent Orange plaintiffs.

 

No such gesture has been made on the other side of the Pacific,

despite pleas for support. When President Bill Clinton visited Hanoi

four years ago, Vietnamese president Tran Duc Long made an appeal to

the US 'to acknowledge its responsibility to de-mine, de-toxify former

military bases and provide assistance to Agent Orange victims. " Almost

30 years after the war no such acknowledgement has been made - all

Washington has offered is funding for scientific conferences and

further research.

 

Former director of Vietnam Red Cross,Dr Nguyen Trong Nhan a tireless

campaigner and vice-president of the the Agent Orange Victims

Association) is sadly disappointed by the US response to the

humanitarian crisis that Vietnam is facing. " Vietnam can't solve the

problem on its own. Hanoi helped the US military to track down remains

of MIAs (Missing in Action),and we asked them to reciprocate with

humanitarian aid for victims of Agent Orange, " he says.

 

Companies respond

 

Jill Montgomery, a spokesperson for Monsanto, responded to a request

for comment from CorpWatch by email: " There were seven manufacturers

who were required to make Agent Orange at the specific request of the

US government for military use. Production ended more than 30 years

ago. The government of Vietnam resolved its claims as part of the

treaties that ended the war and normalized relations with the United

States. "

 

" We are sympathetic with people who believe they have been injured and

understand their concern to find the cause, but reliable scientific

evidence indicates that Agent Orange is not the cause of serious

long-term health effects. "

 

Co-defendant Dow Chemical, Monsanto's parent company, has also issued

a statement that reads: " We believe that it is the role of the US

government and the government of Vietnam to resolve any issues related

to wartime activities. "

 

But Tran Anh Loi ,the father of Agent Orange victim Tran Anh Kiet,

says: " Monsanto must pay compensation for their crimes. They have

caused this tragedy. I think the government should raise their voice

and make the payment a condition before Monsanto can do business in

Vietnam.¨

 

" American victims of the Agent Orange will get up to $1500 a month.

However most war veterans and Vietnamese families have only received

around 85,000 Dong a month (just over $5) in government support for

each disabled child. However in response to the public campaign, Hanoi

has increased compensation benefits in July to 300,000 Dong a month

(nearly $20 a month). "