November 29, 2005 Tuesday 1:15 AM GMT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON Nov 28
BODY
A group of Vietnamese and American victims of Agent Orange converged
at the Vietnam War memorial here Monday to highlight the plight
of those exposed to the highly toxic herbicide in the bloody war.
"The victims of Agent Orange not only suffer from its effects
but pass on the problem to future generations," said Nguyen
Trong Nhan, a former president of the Vietnam Red Cross campaigning
for "justice" for the victims.
Nhan, a vice-president of the Association of Agent Orange/Dioxin
Victims in Vietnam, is leading a group of victims of the toxic
defoliant on a 10-city tour of the United States to highlight
their plight to Americans.
Agent Orange was used by the US Army in the Vietnam War to clear
the jungle and prevent enemy forces from being able to use the
dense foliage for cover.
But civil society groups claim three million Vietnamese, and
tens of thousands of US soldiers who fought in the war were affected
by the chemical.
Among the Vietnamese victims at the Vietnam War memorial in Washington
Monday were Dang Thi Hong Nhut, who had suffered multiple miscarriages,
and Ho Sy Hai, who has a prostate tumour, linked to Agent Orange.
"We are here as friends and share the suffering and pain
of the American mothers who lost their children in the war. But
the loss in Vietnam is much, much bigger," Hai said, after
paying respects at the memorial bearing the names of the 50,000
American soldiers who died in Vietnam.
Hai's wife had "many" miscarriages while one of their
children died of cancer at a tender age, Nhan said. Of their three
living children -- two are deaf and dumb while the third is mentally
retarded.
This is the first meeting in Washington between Vietnamese Agent
Orange victims and US Vietnam veterans suffering from the chemical's
effects, officials said.
"The US government had tried to deny the Agent Orange problem
up until 1991 and so it has been difficult to reconstruct the
magnitute of the crime," said David Cline, who served in
Vietnam and is now the head of Veterans for Peace, a US group
of anti-war veterans.
"In terms of numbers, at least 100,000 to 200,000 people
(US soldiers who served in Vietnam) could have had (Agent Orange)
problems," he said.
"The US Department of Veteran Affairs has statisticss on
how many people they recognized as having disability at this point
but those numbers are relatively small -- like less than 50,000,"
he said.
Cline said it was important to raise awareness in the United
States about the Agent Orange problem and to seek "justice"
particularly for the Vietnamese victims.
"In some cases, the defects have been seen in people representing
three generations -- which means it is not something that is going
to go away when a certain generation dies," he said.
A US court earlier this year dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf
of millions of Vietnamese allegedly harmed by the war-era defoliant
and which had accused a string of US chemical firms of crimes
against humanity.
An appeal has been lodged against the dismissal.
"We have a responsibility to stand with the Vietnamese in
their struggle for that justice. It's been too long," said
Frank Corcoran, a US infantryman in the Vietnam War who said he
was suffering from Agent Orange-related prostate cancer.
In 1984, chemical companies that manufactured Agent Orange paid
180 million dollars into a fund for US veterans following a lawsuit.
But the companies did not admit wrongdoing and Vietnamese victims
have never been compensated.
Laura Costas of the Veterans for Peace said the United States
had failed to learned from its experience in the Vietnam War,
citing accusations that US troops had used white phosphorous bombs
and depleted uranium in Iraq.
Costas, whose brother was among US soldiers who served in Iraq,
said, "We don't know what kind of health problems he will
suffer in the future but he was definitely exposed to depleted
uranium and they don't really have a plan for the soldiers who
were exposed."
|