Trial over Agent Orange sale
Fourteen multinational companies went on trial in France yesterday accused of causing grievous harm to a French-Vietnamese woman by selling Agent Orange to the US whose military used millions of tons of the toxic chemical in the Vietnam War. Lawyers for the plaintiff and NGOs have hailed the trial as potentially ‘‘historic’’ as a guilty verdict would be the first time a Vietnamese civilian was deemed a victim of the defoliant, which contains harmful dioxins.
As part of American’s Ranch Hand military campaign to halt the advance of North Vietnamese troops, the US military sprayed an estimated 75 million litres of Agent Orange between 1961 and 1971. The stated aim was to deprive enemy combatants of cover and destroy crops. But
NGOs say that as well as destroying plants, polluting the soil and poisoning animals, it also caused health problems such as cancer and malformations in up to three million people in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The US officially ended the use of defoliant chemicals in the war in 1971, and withdrew from Vietnam in 1975.
To date, only military veterans from the US, Australia and Korea have won compensation for the after-effects of the chemical which has a toxicity estimated to be about 13 times that of herbicides in civilian use. In 1984, seven chemical companies settled with US veteran plaintiffs to the tune of US$250 million (NZ$350 million) after 16,000 complained exposure had caused rare forms of cancers, nerve damage, liver disorders and skin problems.
They also claimed it resulted in miscarriages by their spouses and birth defects in their children. However, civilian lawsuits have so far failed.
‘‘A recognition of Vietnamese civilian victims would constitute a legal precedent’’, international law specialist Valerie Cabanes said. NGOs also hope it will bolster a drive to pressure states to recognise ‘‘ecocide’’ as a crime. Almost 20 per cent of Vietnam’s forests were affected by the chemical.
The case centres on Tran To
Nga, 78, who worked as a journalist in Vietnam in her 20s. She filed the lawsuit in 2014 against firms that made or sold Agent Orange, including Monsanto, now owned by German giant Bayer, and Dow Chemical. Speaking before the trial, Nga said: ‘‘I’m not fighting for myself, but for my children and the millions of victims.’’ She suffers from Agent Orange effects including type 2 diabetes and a rare insulin allergy. She said she also contracted tuberculosis twice, developed a cancer and one of her daughters died of a heart malformation.
‘‘I was the first generation to bear the scars, my daughters were also victims and now my granddaughters have diseases,’’ she said beforehand.
The multinationals argue that they cannot be held responsible for the way the American military used their product. The trial continues.