1.OPEN LETTER TO MONSANTO
2.Agent Orange Vietnam Victims to USA
3.Agent Orange victims' delegation arrives in New York
NOTE: Len Aldis is Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society. He recently sent this open letter (item 1) to Monsanto's president and Chief Excutive Officer.
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1.OPEN LETTER TO MONSANTO
http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/life/300908/life_le.htm
Mr Hugh Grant
President and Chief Executive Officer
Monsanto
800 North Lindbergh Boulevard
St Louis. USA
Dear Mr Grant,
In 1961, three years after you were born, U.S. forces began their ten-year use of Agent Orange in South Vietnam. Over those years Eighty Million litres of the chemical was sprayed destroying forests, poisoning the rivers, lakes and the land. An even greater crime was the many thousands of Vietnamese people that died from the chemical and the hundreds of thousands that were crippled.
1981, six years after the American War on Vietnam ended; you joined the company that, along with others, was responsible for the manufacture of Agent Orange. Today in Vietnam there are 3.5 million people from new born babies to veterans suffering from the effects of the chemical your company made. Not to forget the many U.S. veterans also affected, like the Vietnamese many have died and are dying.
You were Mr Grant, at the time you joined Monsanto, fully aware of the effects that Agent Orange had had, you certainly knew when you became the company’s president and its chief executive. Yet Mr Grant you failed to take any steps to alleviate the consequences of Monsanto’s manufacture of Agent Orange. Indeed, not one word of regret to the Vietnamese victims has come from your lips despite facing lawsuit after lawsuit by victims from Vietnam, U.S. and South Korea.
Monsanto is, as you well know, the leading company involved with Genetic Modified (GM) crops. Your company has gone from creating one poison to another, both have and are still killing many thousands of people. Where does it end Mr Grant?
How can you live with the knowledge that you, and Monsanto through the use of Agent Orange and GM seeds etc are responsible for the deaths and physically crippling millions of people in the countries that your products were used and are sold?
I regret that here in my country Monsanto has also left a legacy, by its disposal of tonnes of chemical waste in a number of municipal sites. A particular site, Brofiscin Quarry in Wales, is causing acute concern by your chemical waste leaking into the water supply and into the atmosphere. Farmers nearby have reported abnormal births among their animals. Despite questions to government ministers it would appear that they, like Monsanto, are not concerned.
In August a junior minister Phil Woolas, MP from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), on the instructions of the Prime Minister, met with a group of companies that included Monsanto, Dow Chemical (one of your partners in the Agent Orange crime) to discuss introducing GM crops in the UK. This meeting and proposed policy has met with great hostility from people and organisations anxious about our food being poisoned by genetic engineering.
Thankfully, people here and in other countries are becoming more aware of the products of Monsanto and the danger they hold for the people. They are also becoming aware of the lawsuit brought by the Vietnamese people against your company and others in the U.S. Courts, and know that documents are being prepared to be placed before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking Justice for the crimes that Monsanto, Dow Chemical etc committed on the Vietnamese people.
Mr Grant, there is still time for you and your company to make amends for these crimes. Accept your responsibility for the manufacture of Agent Orange and its use on Vietnam. Make financial compensation to the victims, and their families. For many thousands of Vietnamese it is too late, they have died, their suffering is at an end, but for the present 3.5 million, their suffering continues.
Yours sincerely
Len Aldis
Secretary: Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
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2.Agent Orange Vietnam Victims to USA
Prensa Latina, September 12 2008
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B0F7EA356-4163-4039-8372-AFABA002A218%7D&language=EN
Hanoi - Millions of Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, spread by US Air Force during the war against this country, will bring a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the toxic substance before the US Supreme Court of Justice.
According to reports of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA), the lawsuit will be officially presented on October 6 against the companies that manufactured the lethal chemical substance used by the United States to back its troops in that war.
VAVA represents almost four million children and adults that are now suffering the ravages of being exposed to this dioxin, the cause of illnesses and congenital malformations more than three decades after the military conflict.
Several judicial institutions in New York and Washington rejected the accusation against the manufacturers of the substance, such as Monsanto and Dow Jones.
The Association will send a delegation of Agent Orange Victims to Washington, seeking support of justice.
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3.Agent Orange victims' delegation arrives in New York
http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/life/300908/life_ag.htm
A group of Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange (AO)/Dioxin arrived in New York on September 28, beginning a tour to raise the US public's awareness of the aftermath of Agent Orange sprayed by the US army in Vietnam during the war.
The delegation includes 72-year-old Dang Hong Nhut, who was directly exposed to AO and Tran Thi Hoan, a representative of the 2nd generation of AO victims in the country. Hoan was born with only one arm and without any legs.
Speaking to a Vietnam News Agency correspondent in New York, Nhut, who saw miscarriage for three times, had a stillborn baby and has been suffering from cancer because of AO, said that she wants to explain to the US people the harmful effects of AO on the people and environment in Vietnam, and how victims, both who experienced the war and younger generations, are suffering from the toxic substance.
According to Merle Ratner, co-ordinator of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC), four US mass organisations fund the victims’ tour with donations contributed by volunteers.
She affirmed that VAORRC supports Vietnamese AO victims and their lawsuit against US chemical companies, demanding these chemical companies pay compensation to the AO victims and calling on the US government to take responsibility towards those victims.
Ratner said her organisation also takes part in building up solidarity among American and Vietnamese AO victims.
During their first day in New York, the Vietnamese AO victims have a busy schedule with meetings with media workers and talks with American students. (VNA)