Victims press Vietnam Agent Orange case in US court

[LeighAnn]

Source: Channel News Asia (MediaCorp News)

Vietnamese and American plaintifs exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam war on Monday presented their court appeal against 37 US producers and suppliers of the chemical defoliant.

The case was rejected in 2005 by a federal judge who said the plaintiffs had failed to prove that the chemicals caused genetic defects. The appeals court ruling will not be known for several weeks.

Monday morning's hearing began with testimony about 16 US former soldiers, and was to move on to the Vietnamese victims later in the proceedings.

Dow Chemical, Monsanto or Hercules, Inc. are among the 37 companies being sued.

Four of the Vietnamese plaintiffs, some in wheelchairs, made the trip to New York for the hearing, including 52-year-old Nguyen Van Quy, a former soldier who contracted stomach cancer, and Nguyen Thi Hong, 60, a former battlefield nurse who has given birth prematurely and accumulated a host of illnesses.

They were supported at the hearing by several dozen Americans, mainly from the Veterans for Peace movement, who wore orange ribbons that read: "Justice for Vietnam's Agent Orange Victims."


Read more: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/283094/1/.html

[BikeWriter]

1. Not long after I got home my girlfriend prematurely aborted a child.

I've always wondered if it were due to Dioxin.

[saigon68]

2. Meanwhile US Corporations still use War to make obscene profits

Dioxin is only one of many corporate outrages

[burrowowl]

3. May Dog be with them!

Goddamn Agent Orange and those who ordered it! They should be in PRISON already!

[Lyric]

4. My Dad was a 'Nam vet

Exposed to Agent Orange. My older sister was born with cerebral palsy, and some other minor deformities, less than a year after he got back home. He didn't have any more kids for about 10 years, then I came along and was perfectly normal.

Coincidence? I think not.

[Javaman]

5. I wonder about the agent orange that wasn't used and if it was dumped into the ocean. nt