Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Radio Voice of Vietnam, March 1, 2005

*** No decision has been made at the first hearing of the lawsuit filed by the Vietnamese Agent Orange (AO) victims against 37 US chemical companies which produced and supplied toxic chemicals for US troops to spray in Vietnam during the war between 1961 and 1971.

Chief Judge Jack B. Weistein announced at the one-day hearing at the Federal Court in Brooklyn District, New York, that the court needed more time to study new evidence presented by the two sides at the hearing, which lasted for eight hours instead of the seven as scheduled.

About 50 lawyers representing Vietnamese AO victims, US chemical manufacturers and US veterans affected by the lethal chemical attended the hearing.

Lawyers for the defendants presented arguments asking the court to reject the petition from over 100 Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange in order to help the chemical firms avoid paying compensation.

The US Department of Justice issued a letter to the judge asking them to throw out the case because the President has the right to pardon the companies.

However, lawyers for the plaintiff affirmed that the petition was legitimate and rejected the proposal to annul the proceedings.

The lawyers representing US veterans exposed to Agent Orange during the war submitted proof that the US chemical firms had concealed the dangers of Agent Orange, particularly dioxin, when they were producing and supplying the chemical used by the US army as a defoliant.

Representatives from a US NGO centre for constitutional rights also presented arguments for the Vietnamese victims.

Speaking to Vietnam News Agency after the hearing, Jonathan Moore, one of the lawyers for the plaintiff, said the hearing was a good chance for plaintiffs to present the latest evidence in the quest for compensation for Agent Orange victims. The chemical has damaged the health of the Vietnamese people and contaminated the water and land. He believed that the case would eventually be found in their favour. He also said that he and other lawyers for the plaintiffs would continue to pursue the lawsuit.

Between 1961 and 1971, the US military sprayed 82 million litres of toxic chemicals over southern Vietnam, according to a study by scientists from Columbia University that was published in Nature magazine in April 2003. Some 366kg of dioxin, an ingredient in Agent Orange that has been linked to cancer and reproductive problems in humans, was dropped over the country, the study found.

*** General Vo Nguyen Giap on Tuesday sent a letter to the upcoming second international conference on the consequences of Agent Orange in Vietnam to be held in Paris, France, from March 11-12.

In the letter, Gen. Giap welcomed the France-Vietnam Friendship Association’s initiative to organise the conference and asked international delegates to make clear the responsibilities of those who conducted the chemical war in Vietnam.

He said that although peace was restored in Vietnam after 1975, the Vietnamese people have continued to suffer serious and long-term consequences as a result of the American war in Vietnam in 1960s and 70s. In particular, the consequences of Agent Orange/dioxin sprayed by US troops caused serious impacts on the social and natural environment. Millions of victims, including women and children, have died. Millions of others were infected with serious illnesses and tens of thousands of their children were born with deformities and have to lead a difficult life physically and spiritually.

The Vietnamese Government and people, as well as international friends, have made great efforts to help the victims overcome the consequences of the chemical war. However, the assistance available has not met the victims’ requirements.

The first international conference on the consequences of Agent Orange, held in Stockholm in July 2002, released a statement calling on the United Nations, the US Government, and chemical companies which supplied products containing high levels of dioxin to be used in Vietnam to be involved in activities to help the victims overcome the effects of the war.

Gen. Giap said Vietnam organised two conferences on AO victims in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. At the conference in Hanoi, Mr Giap said he condemned the crime and called on the Vietnamese people and international friends, and even those in the US to lend a helping hand to AO victims. He met with the US commander of armed forces based in the Pacific, US ambassadors and Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., who ordered Agent Orange to be sprayed in certain areas of Vietnam in the early 1970s and whose son, a Vietnam veteran, was infected with the chemical. During the talks, Mr Giap asked the US join Vietnam’s efforts to deal with the consequences of war and all the guests agreed.

On January 30, 2004, the Vietnam Association of Agent Orange/Dioxin Victims and the first three AO victims filed a lawsuit against US chemical companies, demanding compensation for what the businesses caused during the war. They filed the suit not only because of their interests, but also for all AO victims in other countries, including the US.

He said it is necessary to launch a large-scale international movement in support of the Vietnamese lawsuit and the struggle for a permanent ban on using Agent Orange/Dioxin in future armed conflicts.

Mr Giap expressed his hope that the upcoming conference will continue to make clear the responsibilities of those who conducted the chemical war in Vietnam and called on the international community to pay attention to the Vietnamese AO victims.

*** Sue Kedgley, a member of New Zealand’s Parliament from the Green Party, has called on her country to put pressure on the US to admit using herbicide during the Vietnam war and compensate victims in Vietnam.

In an article published on February 28 in New Zealand’s Herald daily newspaper, Sue Kedgley, who is Deputy Head of the New Zealand Parliament's health committee, said "New Zealand should champion their cause internationally and put pressure on the US to admit responsibility for the damage it has caused to the Vietnamese people through the use of this toxic defoliant, and provide compensation."

She said New Zealand had a moral obligation to help the Vietnamese people, AO victims and support them in their lawsuit against US chemical companies.

There are lingering concerns that New Zealand may have made some of the chemicals that were used to poison the Vietnamese people, as well as New Zealand's soldiers, she said, adding that her country needed to conduct an open and independent inquiry and take responsibility for AO victims in Vietnam.

However, Ms Kedgley said, the New Zealand Government has so far done nothing to apologise for participating in the war in Vietnam or help Vietnamese AO victims.

She recalled the tragedy she witnessed while visiting the Hoa Binh (Peace) village in Vietnam, which cares for child victims of Agent Orange/dioxin.

Some children were blind and deaf, and some had abnormally large heads, twisted limbs, or no limbs at all, she said - all results of Agent Orange. Almost all of them were born into families with parents or grandparents who were exposed to Agent Orange. Some have as many as five siblings with abnormalities and come from families afflicted for three generations, Ms Kedgley added.

She said that what she saw exposed the fallacy of the official line frequently repeated during last year's health committee hearings, that there was insufficient evidence that Agent Orange can cause a wide range of health effects in succeeding generations.

When former US President Bill Clinton visited Vietnam four years ago, the Vietnamese Government appealed to the US to acknowledge its responsibility, detoxify former military bases and help AO victims. So far, nothing has been done, the newspaper reported.

It further said in an out-of-court settlement in 1984, Dow Chemical, Monsanto and other companies who made the chemicals, paid US$180 million in compensation to foreign soldiers who fought in the war in Vietnam, but they have not offered any compensation to the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese whose lives have been destroyed by their lethal products.