US-Vietnam agent orange deal criticised for not going far enough
HANOI - A landmark deal between Hanoi and Washington to jointly investigate contamination caused by wartime
defoliant Agent Orange met with criticism Wednesday for not going further in addressing a decades-old blight
on public health.
"Really I consider this a small step forward," said the director of the Agent Orange Fund of the Vietnamese
Red Cross, Professor Le Cao Dai. "The problem has now lasted for more than 30 years."
After two days of talks here between US and Vietnamese delegations, the US embassy announced late
Tuesday that the former foes had finally reached agreement on two collaborative projects.
The statement hailed the "spirit of cooperation and the scientific discussion which occurred during the meeting",
the first since five days of talks on joint research broke down in Singapore last November.
The two sides agreed to conduct pilot studies in soil and sediment screening for dioxin, the carcinogen
contained in Agent Orange, the details of which will be organized "over the next few months".
They also agreed to hold a joint conference in Vietnam next year on the toxin's effects on human health as well
as the environment.
But Dai, one of Vietnam's foremost researchers into dioxin, criticised the deal for not being ambitious enough in
tackling a problem which had caused tens of thousands of cancers and deformities.
"This is a step but there is more that should be done. I think we should move faster," he said.
The veteran researcher has been involved in a rare independent Agent Orange research project with an
American scientist, Dr Arnold Schecter of the University of Texas.
Their work at a former US air base just outside Ho Chi Minh City found dioxin levels that Schecter describes
as "a public health emergency".
Analysis carried out at a German laboratory found 24 out of 25 blood samples taken from residents had
dangerously high levels of dioxin contamination, undermining scientists' previous assumption the toxin had
gradually been broken down in the environment since Agent Orange spraying ended in 1971.
Declassified records have shown the Bien Hoa base was the site of a wartime accident in which between 5,000
and 7,000 gallons of the defoliant were spilled.
Schecter insists that the two countries should now conduct blood and food sampling at Bien Hoa and other
suspected dioxin hotspots as a matter of urgency.
But the pilot studies agreed by the two governments will only be concerned with soil and sediment sampling, in
a move analysts saw as a deliberate attempt to keep the focus on the environmental effects of dioxin and away
from its impact on human health in Vietnam.
Analysts say there are still misgivings in Washington about getting involved in surveying the number of victims of
dioxin contamination, as that would raise the thorny issue of compensation or humanitarian assistance for the
victims.
On the Vietnamese side there is also a reluctance to get into food sampling in a country where more than 70
percent of the population still lives in the countryside and depend on agricultural and seafood exports for their
livelihoods.
"There is obviously great difficulty for the Americans in acknowledging the full impact of the war and I guess
this is a way that they can get around their internal disagreements and help Vietnam with the problem," one
Western diplomat told AFP.
"And with its huge dependence on food exports, Vietnam doesn't want anyone going around saying there might
be a problem with its seafood or agricultural produce."
But the diplomat stressed that whatever the shortcomings of the deal, it should still be given "at least a cautious
welcome".
"This is such an ingrained problem on both sides that you have got to start with small steps to be able to move
onto bigger things," he said.
Agence France Presse - July 3rd, 2001.
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