American talk about AO pains

From Vietnamnet: American talk about AO pains

It is because children who suffer from AO sequel have no connection to political situation in the early 1960s but they are victims of decisions made 50 years ago, when the US administration decided to launch the chemical war.

Heather Bowser, 38, is luckier than her parents because she have two children who are not harmed by AO, though Bowser suffers from inborn disability because her father is a veteran who joined the Vietnam War in 1968-1969.

“Every morning, when I’m assembly my artificial leg, I think about the people who decided to spray 20 million liters of weed killer in Southeast Asia. Their decision in the past has affected my life,” Bowser says.

When she was a little girl, Bowser had to stand mock and teasing from other kids for her disability. “It is a meaningless tragedy,” she says.

“Vietnamese children have to face similar meaningless tragedies in their lives. They face an uncertain future as the aftermath of inborn disability, diseases and poverty. They are innocent victims and they are deserved to a better life,” she adds.

Bowser says that it is necessary to speed up research of DNA of the second, third generations of AO victims to better cope with the future.

US veteran Ralph Steele was a gunner on aircraft when he was only 19 and one who involved in spraying fatal chemicals in Vietnam. That past has tortured Steele in his remaining years.

“I still remember the comment of a veteran at a meeting of veterans in the US, after I told them the story about this mission (spraying chemicals), he said: ‘If I knew in advance what you are doing, I would have shot you down’,” Steele says.

Since 2006, this veteran has come to Vietnam several times to visit AO victims, where he realizes the painful facts: chemicals used by the US army during the Vietnam War have caused genetic mutations that cause fatal diseases to millions of Vietnamese. Today, part of Vietnam is still infected by AO residues.

“Many years later, when we understand fully about the destruction of this chemical, it is unable to understand why we, human beings, could allow such act,” he adds.

Vice chair and Secretary General of the Vietnam Association of Dioxin/AO Victims, Tran Xuan Thu, says that the association will pursue the lawsuit against American chemical companies. The US court refused to handle the lawsuit proceeded by Vietnamese AO victims for three times.

Thu says this time, plaintiffs may be others, perhaps second-generation victims and the defendants may not be all 37 US chemical companies. The documentations may be sent to another court, not the federal court in New York.

During the Vietnam War (1964-1975), Washington and its alliance poured 83 million liters of highly toxic weed killer on hundreds of thousands of hectares in Southeast Asia, mainly in Vietnam. US airplanes destroyed 25 percent of forest coverage in vy by AO. Three million Vietnamese people now suffer disability, caused by AO/dioxin.

Under the pressure of international and US public opinions, the US government has made some moves to clean hot-spots of dioxin in Vietnam and spend a small amount of money to help AO victims in Vietnam. In 2007, 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, the US Congress ratified $9 million for dioxin treatment programs in Vietnam.

Since 2008, the US has distributed more than $3 million for healthcare programs for the disabled in Da Nang, a hot spot of dioxin, and granted $6 million to detoxify the Da Nang Airport.

However, Jeane Mirer, President of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, coordinator of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, says that there are 28 hot spots in Vietnam that need detoxification.

She says much more funding needed for this task and to assist AO victims. There are many families in which three generations are AO victims. “We believe that the US must bear the responsibility to heal the war wounds by giving more remarkable assistance to victims in Vietnam”.

She says that the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign is calling for a national campaign to urge the US Congress to fund a comprehensive healthcare and rehabilitation program for Vietnamese AO victims, and to detoxify all hot spots in Vietnam.

The Vietnam-US Dialogue Group on AO/Dioxin estimates that around $300 million is needed to remarkably solve AO/dioxin sequels in the next ten years. It says that the US government should cover most of the funding. The remaining will be mobilized from other public and private donors and investment from the Vietnamese government and people.

John Trinh, a Vietnamese origin American director has sent his film entitled “AO: 30 years later” to US President Barrack Obama, US senators and other famous people in the US. Though he has not received any feedback, Trinh believes: “They have heard my voice.”

This film has been sent to 20 international film festivals and won many prizes in the US and other countries.