GMW: Agent Orange victims still fighting for justice

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GMW: Agent Orange victims still fighting for justice

" GM WATCH " <info

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 16:27:16 +0100

 

 

 

 

 

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EXCERPTS: It is impossible to ignore Agent Orange in Vietnam. Its

casualties are everywhere... In January, a South Korean court ordered

Monsanto and Dow Chemicals to pay US$62 million... in compensation to

about

6800 people. Yet nothing has been given to the people most exposed and

whose lives continue to be affected by the toxic chemical.

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Agent Orange victims still fighting for justice

Connie Levett Herald Correspondent in Ho Chi Minh City

Sidney Morning Herald, August 28, 2006

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/agent-orange-victims-still-fighting-for-justice\

/2006/08/27/1156617213226.html

 

NGUYEN THI KIM VANG had never seen a child with a birth deformity

before the Vietnam War. Thirty years later she lives with a constant

screaming reminder.

 

Of her children, three died in the first few months, two are normal and

the sixth still cannot recognise her although Mrs Vang has nursed,

changed her nappies and fed her every day for 25 years.

 

Her husband spent years in the jungle fighting for the Viet Cong and

was exposed to defoliation chemicals sprayed by US forces.

 

Her daughter, Duong Thi Thu Huong, now 25, was born apparently normal

but one week later developed marks on her skin. Today she is a twisted

shell, with the body weight of a 10-year-old, twitching in her

dilapidated wheelchair in the simple family home in Vung Tau, a small

coastal

resort town two hours south of Ho Chi Minh City.

 

" She doesn't know anything, " said her mother, " but I have not had one

full night's sleep since she was born. She screams every night. "

 

It is impossible to ignore Agent Orange in Vietnam. Its casualties are

everywhere.

 

An estimated 4 million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange, a

chemical mixture of two synthetic herbicides, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, which

was

used to strip foliage from the jungle, depriving the Viet Cong guerillas

of shelter and food. It contains dioxin, which does not dissolve in

water, and is thought to have contaminated the water supply and entered

the food chain through the soil. Between 1961 and 1971 the US sprayed 95

million litres of herbicides over southern Vietnam.

 

In America, the Government has found ways to look after its own

casualties without admitting guilt, but the Vietnamese get very little

airplay

and have received no compensation. The Vietnamese Government wants to

change that. In March 2005, it lost a lawsuit against 37 chemical

companies that provided the US government with Agent Orange. The judge

ruled

that it had not been proved that the chemical caused birth defects and

illness.

 

Vietnam has filed an appeal, expected to go before the US Court of

Appeals in November, promising new research on genetic deformity and

26 new

plaintiffs to add to the original three.

 

The clinching evidence will be the latest research from the Military

Medical Institute on 50,000 people, said Professor Nguyen Trong Nhan,

deputy chairman of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent

Orange/Dioxin. He told the state-owned newspaper Family and Society

that " it

shows people who live in AO/dioxin-affected areas will have up to 2.95

per

cent and 2.69 per cent of their children and grandchildren respectively

deformed " .

 

In Vung Tau, the provincial chapter of the Vietnam Association for

Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin says they have 3390 registered cases

ranging

from severe to mild, affecting first generation to third.

 

War veterans from the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have won

compensation in out-of-court settlements. In January, a South Korean

court ordered Monsanto and Dow Chemicals to pay US$62 million ($82

million)

in compensation to about 6800 people. Yet nothing has been given to the

people most exposed and whose lives continue to be affected by the

toxic chemical.

 

 

 

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