Seems the US is a failed state in terms of failing to take responsibility
for its actions and accepting the rules of law and warfare as applying only
to others not to itself. It is not surprising it bribes states to exempt it
from being tried for war crimes.
Cheers, Ken Hanly
Vietnam's war against Agent Orange
By Tom Fawthrop
Cu Chi district, Vietnam
The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but the scourge of dioxin contamination from
a herbicide known as Agent Orange did not.
The damage inflicted by Agent Orange is much worse than anybody thought at
the end of the war, said Professor Nguyen Trong Nhan, the vice-president of
the Vietnam Victims of Agent Orange Association (VAVA).
Between 1962 and 1970, millions of gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed
across parts of Vietnam.
Professor Nhan, the former president of the Vietnamese Red Cross, denounced
the action as a massive violation of human rights of the civilian
population, and a weapon of mass destruction.
But since the end of the Vietnam War, Washington has denied any moral or
legal responsibility for the toxic legacy said to have been caused by Agent
Orange in Vietnam.
The unresolved legacy and US denials of responsibility triggered three
Vietnamese to take unprecedented legal action in January 2004.
The plaintiffs alleged war crimes against Monsanto Corporation, Dow
Chemicals and eight other companies that manufactured Agent Orange and other
defoliants used in Vietnam.
The case has been brought by VAVA, which was set up to promote an
international campaign to gain justice and compensation for Agent Orange
victims.
Preliminary hearings began in January at the US Federal Court in New York,
presided over by senior judge Jack Weinstein.
Birth defects
Agent Orange was designed to defoliate the jungle and thus deny cover to
Vietcong guerrillas.
It contained one of the most virulent poisons known to man, a strain of
dioxin called TCCD.
First it killed the rainforest, stripping the jungle bare.
In time, the dioxin then spread its toxic reach to the food chain - which
some say led to a proliferation of birth deformities.
In a small commune in the heavily sprayed Cu Chi district, the family of
21-year-old Tran Anh Kiet struggles with the problems of daily living.
His feet, hands and limbs are twisted and deformed. He writhes in evident
frustration, and his attempts at speech are confined to plaintive and
pitiful grunts.
Kiet has to be spoon-fed. He is an adult stuck inside the stunted body of a
15-year-old, with a mental age of around six.
He is what the local villagers refer to as an Agent Orange baby.
In Vietnam, there are 150,000 other children like him, whose birth defects -
according to Vietnamese Red Cross records - can be readily traced back to
their parents' exposure to Agent Orange during the war, or the consumption
of dioxin-contaminated food and water since 1975.
VAVA estimates that three million Vietnamese were exposed to the chemical
during the war, and at least one million suffer serious health problems
today.
Some are war veterans, who were exposed to the chemical clouds. Many are
farmers who lived off land that was sprayed. Others are a second and third
generation, affected by their parents' exposure.
Some of these victims live in the vicinity of former US military bases such
as Bien Hoa, where Agent Orange was stored in large quantities.
Dr Arnold Schecter, a leading expert in dioxin contamination in the US,
sampled the soil there in 2003, and found it contained TCCD levels that were
180 million times above the safe level set by the US environmental
protection agency.
Calls for US help
Professor Nhan is sadly disappointed by the US response to calls to help
Vietnamese sufferers.
Vietnam can't solve the problem on its own. Hanoi helped the US military to
track down remains of MIAs (US servicemen missing in action), and we asked
them to reciprocate with humanitarian aid for victims of Agent Orange, he
said.
Around 10,000 US war veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange receive
disability benefits for various types of cancer and other serious health
problems that have been linked to dioxin.
American victims of Agent Orange will get up to $1500 a month. However most
Vietnamese families affected receive around 80,000 Dong a month (just over
$5 dollars) in government support for each disabled child, Professor Nhan
said.
When former US President Bill Clinton visited Hanoi four years ago,
Vietnamese president Tran Duc Long made an appeal to the US to acknowledge
its responsibility to de-mine, detoxify former military bases and provide
assistance to Agent Orange victims.
But Washington offered nothing beyond funding scientific conferences and
further research.
Chuck Searcy, vice-president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund based in
Hanoi, said: I am baffled that the US has not offered even a small gesture
of cooperation and assistance to the Vietnamese, beyond the endless talk
about scientific research. Such a step would
