Vietnamese AO victims meet American war veterans in New York

17/06/2007 -- 9:45 PM

New York (VNA) - A delegation of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims, led by Tran Xuan Thu, Vice President and General Secretary of the Viet Nam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), met with 150 American friends including many war veterans in New York on June 16. At the meeting, Mr Thu said that his delegation arrived in the US for the first oral argument of a lawsuit filed by the AO victims, to be heard before the US Court of Appeal on June 18, and told the US public about the aftermaths of Agent Orange in Viet Nam . He introduced the four AO victim members of the delegation to the audience, saying they represent millions of Vietnamese victims of AO/Dioxin. They are Nguyen Thi Hong from southern Dong Nai province, Nguyen Van Quy from northern Hai Phong city, and Vo Thanh Hai and Nguyen Muoi from central Thua Thien-Hue province. Sixty-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong had worked as a nurse at battle fields in the southeast region of the country and has been suffering from serious diseases as a result of her exposure to defoliant sprayed by the US troops during the war. The dioxin has also had direct links to the health problems of her three children. Nguyen Van Quy (52), a former solider operating along the Ho Chi Minh trail, which was heavily sprayed with AO between 1972-1975, is currently suffering from stomach cancer. His three children also suffered from deformities due to their father's exposure to the herbicide with one of them dying right after birth. Vo Thanh Hai (47) was working in Nam Dong region in central Hue province from 1978-1993, which was heavily sprayed with toxic chemicals, during the war. He is now suffering from Hodgkin's, and the lingering consequences of AO has caused the deaths of his two young children. Nguyen Muoi (24), a son of a war veteran who was based in A Luoi valley in Thua Thien-Hue province, a hotbed of AO spraying during the Viet Nam War, suffers from spina bifida as a result of his father's exposure to AO. Thu said that around 4.8 million Vietnamese people have been exposed to dioxin, and over 3 million of them have been eventually becoming AO victims. Half of families of AO victims are most poor households. Half of the AO victims' families have at least two members affected by AO each and eight per thousand of these families have at least five members affected each. The victims have filed a lawsuit against US chemicals companies which produce toxic chemicals causing serious long-time harm on their country's people's health and environment. David Cline, president of the Veterans for Peace (the US ) and Co-founder of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC), said that Quy and he were enemies once but both of them have been AO victims and are struggling for justice. He said that he was awarded an order in the war and now he presented the order to Quy. His guesture was applauded by all attendants at the meeting. Cline called on the American people and war veterans to attend the court of appeals on June 18 to express their support for Vietnamese AO victims and require justice for them. Lawyer Constantine Kokkoris, representative of the plaintiff, said that however the result of the lawsuit will be, Vietnamese AO victims have won in the tribunal of public opinion.-Enditem
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