Vietnam insists on Agent Orange damage repair plan
HANOI - Vietnam on
Wednesday accused the United
States of having waged chemical war, saying the two
countries needed to draw up a plan to repair the damage
caused by the defoliant Agent Orange.
Speaking at the end of a landmark scientific conference on
the effects of defoliants sprayed by U.S. forces during the
Vietnam War, Vice Minister of Science, Technology and
Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen said the two governments
now needed to discuss more than just research priorities.
"The objective is to bring dioxin contamination across Vietnam down to internationally
acceptable levels and do all that can be done to mitigate the health effects," he said.
"The United States waged chemical warfare against Vietnam 30 years ago. Cooperation
with the U.S. is very necessary."
After the three day conference in Hanoi that brought together U.S. and Vietnamese
government scientists and international experts, the two governments are due to hold
bilateral talks.
Anne Sassaman of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences told the
conference the talks over the next two days would deal with setting research priorities.
She said collaboration that had been started between the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and Vietnam would likely result in scientists in Vietnam being able to evaluate
and define the extent of the residual hazard posed by Agent Orange and dioxin.
She said the value of research in Vietnam went far beyond the borders of the country.
"Vietnam's experience may be unique, but dioxin exposure itself is a worldwide issue,"
she said.
"All of us...go away from this meeting with some degree of responsibility for making sure
that this work moves forward."
Millions of gallons sprayed
U.S. forces dumped millions of gallons of Agent Orange on Vietnam during the war that
ended in 1975 to deny communist soldiers jungle cover. Spraying was halted in 1971
after it was discovered its contained the most dangerous form of dioxin, TCDD, and
caused cancer in rats.
Vietnam estimates more than a million of its people were exposed to the spraying, which
it blames for tens of thousands of birth defects, but U.S. government scientists at the
conference questioned Hanoi's claims and said such linkages would take many more
years to prove.
The head of Vietnam's Red Cross, Nguyen Trong Nhan, said on Tuesday that Agent
Orange victims needed U.S. help now and could not wait years for more research to be
conducted.
Vice Minister Nguyen gave a list of preferred research directions, nearly all focusing on
human health effects and methods of cleanups.
It also included establishing a network of communal medical centres and drugs to counter
effects on the immune system, rehabilitation of those born with birth defects and
improved infrastructure in sprayed areas.
Vietnam Veterans of America, which has lobbied for years for compensation for its
members for the effects of Agent Orange, said it was anxious to see research move
ahead in Vietnam.
Its director of government relations Rick Weidman said research needed to look at
programmes to prevent new contamination in hotspots and at what could be done to
mitigate adverse health conditions of those already sick.
VVA president Tom Corey said he hoped the research could be completed quickly.
"We feel...we can have answers in less than a few years," he said. "I am talking no more
than three years there can be significant answers by joint research."
He said the issue of compensation for Vietnamese victims was one that had to be sorted
out between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments and between Vietnam and the
manufactures of Agent Orange, Dow Chemical Co and Monsanto Co.
By David Brunnstrom - Reuters - March 06, 2002.
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