Fund for Reconciliation and Development

355 West 39th Street (ground floor), New York, NY 10018

(212) 760-9903    fax (212) 760-9906   director@ffrd.org   www.ffrd.org

March 10, 2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:  John McAuliff (New York) 212-760-9903, 917-859-9025
                 Susan Hammond (Paris, until March 15)  212-760-9903, 917-991-4850
              Andrew Wells-Dang (Hanoi) 0904-245 461

Despite court ruling, campaign for Agent Orange justice will continue

The Fund for Reconciliation and Development (FRD) is saddened by today’s ruling by Judge Jack Weinstein in the Brooklyn (NY) District Court to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Vietnamese plaintiffs affected by Agent Orange and other chemicals used during the Vietnam-US War.

FRD Executive Director John McAuliff said, “Judge Weinstein has made it easier for our country to continue to evade moral responsibility for the consequences of its actions.  Regardless of how much chemical companies and the US government knew about the poisonous dioxin contamination of defoliants when they used them as weapons of war, they should not hide behind legal and scientific technicalities to avoid facing their obligation to address an ongoing human tragedy traceable to their actions.  We constantly hold other countries responsible, but never ourselves.”

FRD Deputy Director Susan Hammond, who attended the court hearing on February 28, says: “We support the plaintiffs if they decide to appeal Judge Weinstein’s decision.  I believe that their lawyers did a good job of stating the reasons why the lawsuit should go forward. Judge Weinstein listened carefully and thoughtfully to the arguments of both sides. The ruling against the plaintiffs does not end the legal debate or absolve the chemical companies and the US Government of responsibility. We will press ahead with the campaign for justice.”

FRD urges people in the United States and around the world not to wait for the final decision of the court and absolutely definitive scientific study, but to act now to help people in Vietnam who are in need of assistance. We will continue to support fundraising efforts of Vietnamese and international organizations that are providing direct support to families and communities and remediating environmental impacts of herbicide use.

Hammond said, “In addition to the legal and moral responsibility of the chemical companies that produced Agent Orange, the US Government cannot postpone indefinitely facing this controversial legacy of its war in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The plaintiffs’ case provides further reason for the US to assist in the remediation of still heavily contaminated hot-spots and to provide direct humanitarian assistance to Vietnamese who are probable victims of Agent Orange, as it already does for US veterans and Vietnamese survivors of landmines and unexploded bombs.  The chemical companies wrote in a brief to the court that Vietnam’s interest in compensation for alleged injuries resulting from herbicides ‘must be addressed through the diplomatic process.’”

McAuliff noted, “Sadly, this case fits a pattern of obstructing diplomacy and justice by invoking an extreme version of executive privilege that has no basis in the US Constitution or international law. Lawyers for the Justice Department proclaimed in their testimony that no court should have the right to question ‘the executive’s Commander-in-Chief authority.’ However, the Justice Department’s mere assertion that spraying of herbicides is in line with US and international law does not make it so. Nor does it exempt the US Government from moral responsibility for the consequences of its actions, even if these consequences were unforeseen at the time. Particularly in light of recent prisoner abuse and other scandals in Iraq, the fact that a case is ‘embarrassing’ for the United States should never become an excuse for avoiding responsibility.”

The Fund for Reconciliation and Development (FRD) is an independent non-partisan American non-governmental organization that has worked since 1985 to foster and preserve normal diplomatic, economic, educational, cultural and people-to-people relations between the United States and Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Cuba. FRD builds bridges and addresses the lessons and legacies of war and hostility through public education, dialogue, capacity building and direct humanitarian assistance.

In the US, FRD is coordinating an educational project to raise awareness about the lingering consequences of the chemicals used during the Vietnam War and to encourage private and governmental support for alleviating their human health and environmental effects. FRD is working with anthropologist Diane Fox to organize a traveling exhibition of works by Vietnamese and American artists in response to the effects of Agent Orange.

In Vietnam, FRD’s representative acts as coordinator of the Agent Orange Working Group under the VUFO-INGO Resource Center in Hanoi sponsored by international non-governmental organizations and the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations.