International People’s Tribunal to hold hearing on Agent Orange

Doctor Jean Meynard (2nd, R), vice chairman of the France-based Vietnam les Enfants de la Dioxine (The Children of Dioxin in Vietnam), visits the family of an Agent Orange victim in Hanoi’s Ba Vi District. The long-drawn out struggle for justice waged by Agent Orange victims continues despite the many setbacks posed by indefensible actions of the courts and successive US administrations.

The architect of Vietnam’s legendary military victories against the far more powerful French and American armies is 98 years old, but the soft-spoken general minces no words as he accuses the government and courts in the US of double standards. In a letter sent to the International People’s Tribunal of Conscience, Vo Nguyen Giap contrasts the courts’ dismissal of the suit filed by Vietnamese victims against US companies that produced the toxic chemical sprayed by American forces during the Vietnam War with the generous compensation given to US soldiers by the companies and the US administration. The wrong and unfair verdict of the US courts is unacceptable legally and morally, Giap says. The international tribunal will hold its hearing on the Agent Orange case in Paris on May 15 and 16. “I strongly believe that the International Peoples’ Tribunal of Conscience will come up with conclusions which will force the US side to be responsible for dealing with heavy and long-lasting consequences of the chemical warfare waged by the US against Vietnam,” Giap says in his letter. A 14-member delegation representing over three million Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange will depose before the tribunal. Late Monday afternoon, five members of the delegation, which includes three experts in the environmental, health and chemical disciplines, left Vietnam for Paris. The others will depart for Paris tomorrow, including three Agent Orange victims: war veterans Ho Ngoc Chu of Quang Ngai Province and Mai Giang Vu of Ho Chi Minh City, and Pham The Minh from Hai Phong City. As witnesses and victims, the delegation will supply the tribunal with specific evidence of the harmful effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam’s natural environment and human health, clarifying legal issues, so that the US side shoulders responsibility for compensation, said Nguyen Van Rinh, chairman of the Vietnam Association for the Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA), at a press briefing in Hanoi Monday. Between 1961 and 1971, the US Army dropped some 80 million liters of the defoliant known as Agent Orange, containing 366 kilograms of the highly toxic dioxin over large areas of southern Vietnam. The tribunal, convened at the initiative of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), will consider the evidence and draw conclusions about the consequences to the environment and ecology of Vietnam and to the health of the Vietnamese people. It will also consider the responsibility of the US administrations during the period for the conduct of chemical warfare in Vietnam under Customary International Laws; as well as the responsibility of the US in remediation of the consequences suffered by the Vietnamese people. Ho Ngoc Chu, one of three Agent Orange victims attending the tribunal, said: “I propose the US government and US chemical producers accept the obvious fact, not cover it; and shoulder responsibility for dealing with consequences of the toxic chemicals on Vietnam's people and environment, including compensating them. There is no reason for the US government ignoring what they did in the past." The Vietnam Fatherland Front, the umbrella organization of all political and social groups in Vietnam, Monday called for the public to support the International Peoples’ Tribunal. The front’s presidium reaffirmed their support for the VAVA lawsuit and individuals representing victims of Agent Orange, and expressed their belief that the tribunal will fairly consider the evidence and draw conclusions. “We continue to affirm that the struggle for justice of Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange/dioxin is the voice of conscience and human rights, not only for local victims but also for the legitimate interests of other victims, including soldiers from the US and many other countries who participated in the Vietnam War,” it said. The presidium also called for governments, international organizations, scientists, lawyers, social activists and people in the US and other countries to speak up for the truth and take concrete actions to support and help Vietnamese victims in their struggle for justice. The legal case In 2004, Vietnamese Agent Orange victims filed a case against 37 US Agent Orange manufacturing firms in the Brooklyn District Court, New York. In March 2005, Judge Jack Weinstein dismissed the suit, ruling that there was no legal basis for the claim and that the US chemical companies were not liable for how the government used Agent Orange during the war. Three judges from the Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan then heard the Appeals case in June 2007 but upheld Weinstein’s ruling. In August 2008, VAVA petitioned the US Supreme Court to hear the case but it refused to do so in March 2009, without citing reasons. AGENT ORANGE CRUSADER STARTS ANOTHER ONLINE PETITION Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society Len Aldis is once again urging the US to bear responsibility for Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange and is looking to get one million signatures on his latest petition. Aldis created and wrote the “Justice for Victims of Agent Orange Petition” to President Obama and Members of Congress on Thursday. It can be found at http://petitiononline.com/Monsanto/petition.html. In the petition, Aldis notes that after the case brought to the US Supreme Court by dioxin victims demanding restitution from the companies was rejected in March, “Over three million Vietnamese and thousands of American servicemen and women, and their children, will continue to suffer from the serious illnesses and disabilities caused by Agent Orange.” Aldis also quotes the statement that Nguyen Duc made in November 2006 to an American journalist. Duc and his late brother Viet, both victims of Agent Orange, were born conjoined in 1981. Aldis, who expressed his frustration in a letter to President Obama immediately following the refusal on March 2, on Thursday urged the US president and Congress to heed Duc’s words despite the Supreme Court decision, and accept responsibility for and the moral obligations to the victims of Agent Orange. Reported by Bao Anh