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Agent Orange 
and dioxin

 

 
Photo book: "Agent Orange 'Collateral Damage' in Vietnam" af Philip Jones Griffiths
VAVA: Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin
VAVA Folder PDF for/bagside 578 kb, side 2-6 1893 kb, side 7-9 1154 kb

NEWS

The delegation from the Vietnamese Association of Victims of Agent Orange arrived in San Francisco Saturday night, June 9, 2007 from Vietnam. They were met upon their arrival by many U.S. supporters including members of Veterans for Peace and members of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign
The delegation from the Vietnamese Association of Victims of Agent Orange arrived in San Francisco Saturday night, June 9, 2007 from Vietnam.  They were met upon their arrival by many U.S. supporters including members of Veterans for Peace and members of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign

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Signature campain started by Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society's sekretary Len Aldis. 
712.930 signatures - ended autum 2007

the Agent Orange Petition
“…Those who unleashed this most terrible chemical attack in human history must acknowledge the consequences of their actions.   They are the American Government and the factories that produced and profited from the herbicides used during the Viet Nam War…”
(Dang Huyen, Vietnam EconomicTimes, March 2004)

Links:

Documentation on Dioxin and victims in Vietnam

VIETNAM SEEKS MORE EVIDENCE FROM US CHEMICAL FIRMS

September 14, 2004

The US Federal Court should ask US chemical enterprises to provide more information for the court case of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims against those firms, scheduled to start on October 12.

The proposal was made by lawyers of the Vietnamese plaintiffs at the trial's preparation meeting, which was attended by representatives of US chemical businesses, a representative of US veterans, Lawyer Mark Cuker and another of the US government, Lawyer Michael Goldberger.

Lawyers of the Vietnamese side announced that they have so far studied 1.8 million pages of documentation as evidence for the lawsuit and their clients have enough legal documents to win the court case.

Mr Nguyen Van Quy, Ms Pham Thi Phi Phi and Ms Duong Quynh Hoa, representing Vietnamese Agent Orange victims, lodged a complaint on January 30 against 37 US chemical firms, asking for compensation for damages caused by the defoliants to their health. The court was initially expected to open on September 10 in New York but was delayed till October.

The US army was reported to have sprayed around 80 million liters of defoliants over many Vietnamese cities and provinces between 1961 and 1971. To date, around 3 million Vietnamese people have suffered from health problems as a result of exposure to these toxic chemicals.

Vietnam has financed nearly VND100 billion ($ 6.4 million) to support 220,500 Agent Orange victims over the past five years, a conference held yesterday between Vice President Truong My Hoa and the Vietnam Agent Orange/Dioxin Association was told.

Nearly 550,000 people have added their names to the web site http://www.petitiononline.com/AOVN/petition.html to support the lawsuit of Vietnamese Agent Orange sufferers since the web-site was launched in March. Recently, General Secretary of France-Vietnam Friendship Association Marie-Helene Lavallard, who translated the web-site into French, confirmed that she believes that the Vietnamese victims will win the lawsuit against US chemical firms.

(Young People Sep 14 p1, Labor Sep 14 p1, Capital Security Sep 14 p13, People's Army Sep 14 p8)

VIETNAM AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS GATHER TO SHOW AGONY

July 26, 2004, The People July 26, Young People July 26 2004

Luong Thi Than, a woman from an impoverished northern province of Vietnam, joined in the Vietnam War as a voluntary soldier. After the war, she married and hoped to become a mother like other women.

Than, however, never even heard the first cry of her babies after giving birth seven times as all her children died just few seconds after they
were born. The woman was reported to suffer from defoliant agents dropped by the American army forces during the war.

Than, who sough comfort through religion, is now attending a conference in support of the victims of Agent Orange/dioxin in Vietnam held in Ho Chi Minh City on July 25 with the participation of 150 victims, who will represent the other 5 million people who suffer similar circumstances.

The meeting called on all Vietnamese, both at home and abroad, foreigners and organizations to actively assist victims of Agent Orange/dioxin in Vietnam by signing the petition to support the law-suit against the US companies who produced the toxic chemicals.

The firms should have to meet the demand of the victims for appropriate compensation, said Nguyen Thi Binh, Honorary President of the Vietnam Agent Orange Victims' Association (VAVA). "Vietnam's request is fair, legitimate and consistent with international ethics and laws," she added.

"There is no justification in recognizing those who sprayed these toxic chemicals as infected while denying the rights of those who were subject to it," Binh said, indicating such a move as a serious violation of human rights.

The conference was also attended by 500 other representatives from local authorities, mass organizations, local and foreign press media. The conference itself raised more than VND2 billion ($ 127,388) for the victims.

Charles Johnson, The President of Concerned Citizens Coalition, an American non-profit humanitarian organization, said his organization had provided funds for an Agent Orange clinic now serving thousands in the Cu Chi district and will assist in future projects from 2004 through to 2006.

Between 1961 and 1971, the US army was reported to have sprayed around 80 million liters of defoliants, most of which was Agent Orange containing about 400 kg of dioxin, in South Vietnam by the American forces. Dioxin is the most noxious chemical ever discovered, as just 01 nanogram (1 billionth of a gram) can cause cancer, deformities of all types and can be inherited by the next two or three generations.

According to the uncompleted report, Vietnam now has 151,236 people suffering from toxic chemicals, of whom, 86,237 are Agent Orange victims. The country is expected to build a village for children who are victims of Agent Orange in the central province of Thua Thien Hue.

On January 30, 2004, the VAVA, along with victims of Agent Orange, brought forward the suit against 37 American companies, which produced toxic chemicals, to the US court in Brooklyn, New York.

AGENT ORANGE STILL KILLS

By Chien Thang, Saigon Times Magazine, July 22, 2004

Chemical warfare victims in Vietnam are not fighting a lonely battle for justice. Vietnamese in France are fighting with them and for them.

(QQ)Visibly upset, Duong Hieu, a young Vietnamese studying in France, pointed to photos of Vietnamese children with deformed bodies, and said: "The war against the Americans ended over a quarter of a century ago, but there seems to be no end to the sequels of that war." Touched by the suffering that nothing can make up for, and by the isolated voices of the victims of Agent Orange, Hieu decided to join hundreds of Vietnamese students in France to participate in an information campaign to get help for the victims.

I met Hieu and a group of Vietnamese students at a Vietnamese cultural event organized on a fine day of June, in Montreau Park, in the city of Montreuil, France. Among a dozen booths displaying commercial, cultural and tourist products of Vietnam, the stand Duong Hieu and his friends were in charge of could easily be spotted, thanks to the big orange banner bearing the words: "Agent Orange still kills." They did not have anything special to sell to the visitors of Montreau Park, they just wanted to get attention, and help for the victims of Agent Orange.

Handing flyers to passers-by, Khuat Thuy Linh talked about her group of friends: "We are members of Collectif Vietnam Dioxin, an association which gathers individuals and youth groups among the Vietnamese living or studying in France to help the victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam." Receiving a leaflet from Linh's hands, I was struck by the pictures of children with deformed bodies and the terrible, incriminating figures: "83 million liters of defoliation chemicals were used by the Americans during the war in Vietnam, from 1961 to 1971. More than one million Vietnamese, among them 200,000 children, have suffered from the sequels of the lethal Agent Orange."

It was only late in the afternoon, when the number of visitors considerably dwindled, that Hieu, Linh and their fellow students had time
to tell me more about their humanitarian initiatives. Hieu said Collectif Vietnam Dioxin had the participation of many other organizations, such as the Franco-Vietnamese Friendship, Protection for Children suffering from the consequences of dioxin, Tam Viet (Vietnamese Heart), Vietnamese students in France, Overseas Vietnamese living in France, Young Overseas Vietnamese in France and many more.

Collectif Vietnam Dioxin directly takes part in various activities in France, notably researching and publishing information related to Agent
Orange, organizing seminars and talks about dioxin, the most toxic chemical in Agent Orange, helping other humanitarian organizations raise funds, organizing documentary films to spread information in schools and universities, organizing meetings and marches, all aimed at raising awareness and getting the public's attention on the consequences of Agent Orange.

Vo Dinh Kim, an overseas Vietnamese in France said: "The American Government and the companies that produce the deadly chemicals have never done any thing to help the dioxin victims in Vietnam. We want to launch this campaign to seek help for them, help in many forms: medical, material and mental. We support demands for a fair compensation for the victims."

Concrete actions that bring results
Since its foundation, early in 2004, Collectif Vietnam Dioxin has had many concrete actions to inform the French public about the present condition of the victims of dioxin in Vietnam. Most recently, on International Labor Day, on May 1, Collectif Vietnam Dioxin organized a march in Bastille Square in Paris, and distributed more than 7,000 leaflets, seeking support from Parisians for the three Vietnamese dioxin victims who are taking American chemicals companies to court.

On May 11, the date that then U.S. President John F. Kennedy signed permission for Agent Orange to be used in Vietnam, Collectif Vietnam Dioxin opened its own website at www.vietnam-dioxin.org, and started a campaign to collect signatures for an open letter that will be sent to the American presidential candidates. The letter, bearing thousands of signatures, will be sent to the Americans in September when the lawsuit is to be filed.

Part of the open letter says: "You are going through an electoral campaign for presidency. This is a time when the media keep mentioning the Vietnam War. Almost three decades have passed, however many Vietnamese, and even some Americans, are still suffering from that war. Dioxin is a particularly strong chemical that resists time. It has impregnated the soil in Vietnam, affecting our food and threatening our health. Evidence can be seen in innumerable cases of congenital malformation in children of the third generation born after the war ended. In 2004, according to estimates by the Vietnamese Red Cross, there still are in Vietnam over 1 million victims of dioxin and other defoliation chemicals. To Mr. Bush, Mr. Kerry and Mr. Nader, we raise this question: What are you going to do for the victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam?"

Ho Vinh Tru, who represents the Association of Overseas Vietnamese in France, said: "Through our campaigns, we are also trying to get
individuals and organizations to pay attention and to really care. We need financial and medical help to improve the environment in areas of Vietnam that have been heavily affected by dioxin."

The message that Collectif Vietnam Dioxin is sending to Agent Orange victims in Vietnam is: "You are not alone in your fight. Many people and organizations all over the world are conducting campaigns to demand that assistance, both material and non-material, be provided for you."