Vietnam Calls for International Support in Seeking Justice to AO Victims

An international conference on Agent Orange/dioxin opens in Hanoi with the participation of both domestic and foreign scientists, ambassadors, head of international organizations in Vietnam, state media reported. The event, chaired by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam with the presence of Japanese former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, shows Vietnam’s efforts to call for international support to bring justice for Vietnamese victims, which amount to more than three millions and 4.8 million people exposed to AO/dioxin. Mr. Dam said that he witnessed many families suffer from dioxin exposure and birth effects linked to AO/dioxin last until the third and fourth generations. He said that Vietnam is spending a monthly allowance worth VND10 trillion ($448 million) on people vulnerable to AO/dioxin but having justice for the victims would be much more important. Therefore, he expected that international support which is based on science, conscience, and truth, will be stronger to fight for the victims and for a world without war. The conference, held on the occasion of the International AO Day and the 55th anniversary of AO disaster in Vietnam, is part of the country’s decade-long efforts to call for justice for AO victims who suffer from serious consequences caused by the spraying of dioxin in one fifth of the southern region during the Vietnam War. From the 1950s to 1975, the U.S. military sprayed 80 million liters of dioxin chemicals on forest and residential areas in Vietnam’s southern region. Dioxin chemicals used by the U.S. troops during the Vietnam War before 1975 continue to cause high rates of miscarriage, stillborns, and congenital malformation, according to Prof. Tran Duc Phan from Hanoi Medical University. And the exposure become strongest at the three hotspots including Danang airport in the central coastal city of Danang, Phu Cat airport in the central province of Binh Dinh, and Bien Hoa terminal in the southern province of Dong Nai where the U.S. military kept large amounts of dioxin chemicals during the wartime. Concerning war consequence solving, the U.S. has financed Vietnam more than $80 million to carry out a dioxin cleanup project at Danang airport which was formerly used as military base of American troops, marking Washington’s first aid on solving war aftermaths in the former foe. Vietnam and the U.S. celebrate the 20th anniversary of the normalization in 2015 with the participation of key officials who have talked on further cooperation and pledged more aid for the Southeast Asian country. (An Ninh Thu Do – Capital Security Aug 10, Vtv.vn Aug 8)