Kedgley to speak at int'l Agent Orange
conference
|
27 March 2006
Sue Kedgley to speak at international Agent Orange
conference
The New Zealand Government should support the Vietnamese in their efforts to
get official recognition and compensation for the victims of Agent Orange and
other toxic defoliants that were used during the Vietnam War, according to
Green Health Spokesperson Sue Kedgley.
Ms Kedgley is speaking at an International
Conference of the Victims of Agent Orange in
"I believe
"There are an estimated one million Vietnamese, including thousands of
children, who are still suffering from health effects as a result of exposure
to Agent Orange and other toxic defoliants that were sprayed for nine years
during the Vietnam War.
"It's time that we also took the lead in calling on the US Government,
and the international community generally, to support and compensate the
Vietnamese for the toxic environment they were exposed to.
"The Vietnamese people have never been compensated for the health and
environmental effects of Agent Orange. Second and third generation children are
still being born with deformities as a result of their parents' exposure to
Agent Orange and other chemicals," Ms Kedgley
says.
The
"The US Government has a moral obligation to help treat Vietnamese
victims as well as its own soldiers. Chemical companies that manufactured Agent
Orange paid $180 million in compensation to foreign soldiers who fought in
Vietnam in an out of court settlement in 1984, but have never offered
compensation to the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese whose lives have been
destroyed," Ms Kedgley says.
Ms Kedgley also said she was appalled at recent
allegations that medical records relating to the effect of Agent Orange on
"The Green Party strongly supports the need for an inquiry into who
gave orders for the medical files to be removed and for the Government to fund
testing on veterans to assess whether they suffer from dioxin poisoning,
"Ms Kedgley says.