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Regional
News - International friends have suggested more
practical initiatives to support Vietnamese Agent Orange/dioxin
victims, said Madame Nguyen Thi
Binh, Honorary President of the Vietnam Association of Victims
of Agent Orange (VAVA), while talking with the
press in Paris on Dec. 27 about her working visits to France,
Italy and the UK.
Madame Binh said her
delegation toured many places in these countries and met with
representatives from Spain,
Belgium, Germany
and Sweden to call
for their support to Vietnamese AO victims.
She noted that the
movement to support Vietnamese AO victims in foreign countries
produced a great echo.
However, she said,
international friends suggested raising public awareness in and
outside Vietnam of the real consequences suffered by Vietnamese
AO victims. They said supporting Vietnamese victims was also preventing
the risk of proliferation of mass-destruction weapons, for a peaceful
environment and development of human beings.
Madame Binh talked
of other initiatives suggested by foreign friends through their
meetings with the Vietnamese AO victims' delegation. Many
localities in France initiated a long-term campaign to present
100 euros to each family of Vietnamese AO victims every year.
Foreign friends also
proposed building rehabilitation centres for AO victims in Vietnam
or launching a campaign to boycott products of US chemical companies
which are defendants in the lawsuit filed by Vietnamese AO victims.
Moreover, they stressed
the need to increase international coordination of activities
for solidarity with and support to Vietnamese AO victims. Madame
Binh said in fact a such network of coordination has been formed
in Europe, with the key role played by the France-Vietnam and
the UK-Vietnam Friendship Associations.
Regarding the lawsuit
against US chemical companies, Madame Binh affirmed that VAVA
will carry on the lawsuit to the finish because the Vietnamese
AO victims' demand is reasonable and legitimate.
The French press showed
their attention to the developments of the lawsuit and the aftermaths
caused by Agent Orange and dioxin to Vietnamese people during
and after the war.
Jane Weiner, co-director
of "The case against Agent
Orange" - a 90-minute documentary film
being made jointly by France-5,
Australia's SBS,
and Canada's CBS Television,
said the first scenes of the film have been shot and it is expected
to be on screens in mid-2006.
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