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AFX News Limited
Agent Orange meeting ends with calls on US chemical cos to compensate victims
03.29.2006, 07:18 AM

HANOI (AFX) - Delegates to an international conference on the effects of Agent Orange demanded today that the US government and American chemical companies compensate victims of the toxic Vietnam War defoliant.

The call, made at the end of a two-day conference in Hanoi that drew military veterans from six countries, came weeks before a US appeal court is set to rule on whether or not to dismiss a Vietnamese lawsuit against companies that made the herbicide.

'We demand that the United States government be held responsible for making contributions to overcoming the consequences of toxic chemicals,' said the more than 150 Vietnamese and foreign delegates in their final statement.

Participants said they 'utterly dispute' a New York court's dismissal last year of the Vietnamese case and 'demand that the US chemical companies pay compensation equal to their liability'.

US forces widely sprayed Agent Orange, which contains the highly lethal chemical dioxin, in southern Vietnam during the conflict to deprive enemy guerrillas of forest cover and to destroy food crops.

Vietnam says millions of people have suffered a range of illnesses and birth defects as a result, a claim also made by many war veterans from the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Korea.

'Many children have been born without the experience of war but have deformed bodies and can never enjoy the simplest experience of happiness -- that is to live as an ordinary human being,' the appeal said.

Washington has denied responsibility for the millions of health defects that Vietnam blames on the defoliant and has pointed to an absence of universally agreed scientific data on the effects of Agent Orange.

A January court victory in South Korea by veterans there against Monsanto and Dow Chemical which the firms have appealed, should back the Vietnamese case in the US, said Vietnamese lawyer Luu Van Dat.

'The Korean judgement was the first time that a court has affirmed the responsibility of the companies,' Dat said. 'It definitely has a positive impact on our case.'

He said the next trial hearing is expected in April or May.