At a press briefing in Hanoi on July 22, VAVA president Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Rinh called on all AO victims across the world, and especially American war veterans, to stand side by side with Vietnamese AO sufferers in their struggle for justice and legitimate rights.

He urged international organisations, non-governmental organisations and individuals to provide spiritual and material assistance to the Vietnamese victims.

According to Mr Rinh, on August 10, 1961 the US army conducted its first air drop of defoliants, kick-starting 10 years of chemical warfare in Vietnam. The army’s bombardments and chemical spray killed many innocent people, caused lingering human pain and destroyed the environment in much of South Vietnam and adjacent areas.

In 10 years, the US army sprayed approximately 80 million litres of defoliants, mostly Agent Orange containing dioxin, over southern forests and farmland, exposing millions of people to the chemicals. Many of the victims have died or are still dying, and many have given birth to children with long-term physical defects.    

Though the war ended 35 years ago, AO victims are still living lives of misery. About 70 percent of the families of AO victims are living below the poverty line, of whom 90 percent are unskilled, 30 percent have deteriorating health, and 22 percent of the families have three or more persons suffering physical symptoms.

Relieving the pain of AO victims is the obligation of everyone. The State has issued preferential policies for the victims, helping them ease their daily suffering and overcome their sense of social inferiority. Since January 2004, domestic and foreign philanthropists have raised funds and presented gifts worth more than VND150 billion to the victims.

VAVA and several of the victims have filed a lawsuit against the chemical companies which supplied the toxic chemicals to the US Army between 1961-71.

This is a struggle for justice consistent with the common values of humankind, and we believe that justice will prevail in the end, said Mr Rinh.