Vietnamese Agent Orange victims who are in the US for the June 18 oral argument at the US Court of Appeals met with 150 American friends including many war veterans in New York on June 16.

Tran Xuan Thu, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) introduced to the American delegates members of the court delegation and outlined their scheduled programmes in the US.

According to Mr Thu, around 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to the dioxin and three million of them have suffered the physically terrible consequences of Agent Orange. Half the families of AO victims are among the poorest households in Vietnam. Around 50 percent of the families have at least two members affected by AO and eight in a thousand families have at least five born with deformity. These victims demand justice and compensation, said Mr Thu. 

Lawyer Constantine Kokkoris, who represents the plaintiffs at the court, said that the court should hear the victims’ voices and that Vietnamese Agent Orange victims have already won in the court of public opinion whatever the result of the court case. 

David Cline, president of the Veterans for Peace (US) and Co-founder of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC), said that he and victim Nguyen Van Quy who is in the US for the court case - were once enemies on the battlefield, but now united in the fight for justice. He called on the American people and war veterans to support Vietnamese AO victims and demand justice for them.

RoK veterans support Vietnamese AO victims

"We demand genuine compensations for veterans and non-military victims of Vietnam in order to resolve dioxin-related issues," said a statement issued by the Korean Victims of Agent Orange Veterans Association (KAOVA).

The statement was handed over by KAOVA Secretary General Kim Sung Wook to Seoul-based Vietnam News Agency reporters on the eve of the oral argument.

Nearly 320,000 Korean soldiers joined the Vietnam war, an estimated 150,000 of whom claimed to have suffered from illness associated with AO. In 2006, the Seoul High Court ruled two US chemical manufacturers, Dow Chemical and Monsanto, pay more than US$63 million to 6,800 Korean AO/dioxin victims and their relatives.

"We have struggled for eight years...but have yet to receive any payment from the US. This is a long and difficult fight..," Mr Wook wrote in the statement. "Vietnam and the US should boost cooperation in various areas in order to heal the past and look toward the future."

More signatures in support of AO victims

Nearly 160,000 people joined a special online music show and signed a petition at www.dongcavicongly.com in support of the Vietnamese AO victims. 

The one-hour show, co-hosted by VAVA and the Website www.nhacso.net, was launched with the song “Why did you die?” written by late composer Thanh Truc and performed by singer My Le.