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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19 (IPS)
- Vietnamese victims of the defoliant known as Agent Orange wound
up a month-long visit to the U.S. at the invitation of veterans,
Vietnamese Americans and peace activists, to press their case
for reparations from the companies that made the deadly chemical.
They say an estimated 50,000 deformed children have been born
to parents who were directly sprayed with Agent Orange or exposed
through contaminated food and water.
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. scorched up to 25 percent of
the country's forests with the deadly chemicals Agent Orange,
and also Agent White, Blue, Pink, Green and Purple. Agent Orange,
which contained trace amounts of dioxin, disabled and sickened
both soldiers and civilians.
The risk of death from cancer among men and women exposed to
Agent Orange increased by 30 percent in Vietnam after the war,
studies show. Today, three million Vietnamese and tens of thousands
of U.S soldiers still suffer the health effects of these chemicals.
To raise awareness here about their campaign, Vietnamese activists
launched a 10-city tour, with stops in New York, Washington, Chicago
and San Francisco, among others.
"I have just learned what the doctors think of my case,"
said Ha Thi Hai, an Agent Orange victim born in 1976 in Vietnam's
Thai Binh province. "They say that Agent Orange has affected
my marrow and atrophied my muscles. It is inoperable and incurable.
I am going to lose little by little the use of my limbs and not
be able to move."
Now, more than 30 years after the end of the war that killed
more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers and three million Vietnamese, U.S
veterans are demanding compensation for their Vietnamese counterparts.
U.S. veterans received partial compensation for their injuries
from the U.S. government and the chemical companies that manufactured
the weapons, but Vietnamese victims have not received any compensation.
From 1961 trough 1971, 22 million gallons of highly toxic herbicides
were sprayed over hundreds of thousands of hectares of land, mostly
in Vietnam, but also in Laos and Cambodia.
In addition to the human toll, Agent Orange devastated Vietnam's
natural environment, including the wholesale destruction of mangrove
forests and the long-term poisoning of soil and crops.
In 1984, seven U.S. chemical companies agreed to pay 180 million
dollars to 291,000 people over a period of 12 years. However,
the companies refused to accept liability as part of the legal
settlement of the cases, 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.
In 2004, Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange filed a new federal
lawsuit against 36 U.S. chemical companies that manufactured and
supplied the herbicide. The lawsuit was dismissed on Mar. 10 of
this year, when a judge found the claims lacked a basis in national
or international law.
The Association of Agent Orange Victims, which represents more
than three million Vietnamese affected by the toxic herbicide,
announced in September that they planned to file an appeal of
the ruling.
The Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign is
supporting the lawsuit of Agent Orange victims against U.S. chemical
manufacturers and is lobbying the U.S. government to provide compensation
for Vietnamese Agent Orange survivors.
"We have had a tremendous amount of support," Merle
Ratner, a coordinator of the Campaign, told IPS. "We are
trying to get legislation introduced within the next year or six
months. We are calling on the U.S. to allocate money for Agent
Orange victims in Vietnam."
"From the discussions of the people from the tour, we have
heard that they are living under difficult conditions. The Vietnamese
government is trying to provide help for them and in fact is giving
some kind of assistance to every Agent Orange victim in the country,
but this is a poor country so they can not afford that much,"
she said,
"We think there is a responsibility, both legally and ethically,
to compensate the Agent Orange victims in Vietnam, as the U.S.
has been forced to do with the U.S. veterans."
Meanwhile, after initially denying allegations that U.S. forces
had used chemical agents in Iraq, the Pentagon now says that it
did in fact use white phosphorus as a weapon in Fallujah last
year. However, it denies having used it against civilians.
The U.S. initially said white phosphorus was used only to illuminate
enemy positions, but now admits it was used as a weapon. The substance
can cause burning of the flesh, but is not illegal and is not
specifically classified as a chemical weapon.
However, according to the U.S. government Agency for Toxic Substances
Disease Registry, "Exposure to white phosphorus may cause
burns and irritation, liver, kidney, heart, lung, or bone damage,
and death."
Marie Okabe, deputy spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, said, "We are aware of the reported use of white phosphorus
in Fallujah last year, and are concerned about its effects on
the local civilian population."
"We welcome the decision of the government of Iraq to launch
an immediate investigation into this matter," she added.
The 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons bans the use of incendiary
weapons against civilians, but the U.S. is one of several nations
that are not signatories to the treaty.
"In Vietnam, they poisoned us with Agent Orange, and now
they are poisoning another generation with depleted uranium and
other toxins," said Dave Curry of the U.S.-based Vietnam
Veterans Against the War.
"Out of the 360,000 discharged veterans from the current
Iraq war, nearly one in four had already visited VA (the Veterans
Administration) for physical injuries or mental health counseling
by February 2005," Curry said.
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+Vietnam Veterans Against the War (http://www.vvaw.org/)
+Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign (http://www.vn-agentorange.org/)
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