Last updated: 17:33 - June 7, 2007
Agent Orange victims to attend lawsuit http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/life/070605/life_aov.htm
Four Agent Orange victims will arrive in the US from June 9-29 to attend the first oral argument of a lawsuit filed by Vietnamese AO victims before the US Court of Appeals on June 18.
Tran Xuan Thu, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), who will lead the delegation to the US, delivered the news at a press briefing in Hanoi, on June 6.
Thu said the four AO victims are Nguyen Thi Hong from southern Dong Nai province, Nguyen Van Quy from northern Hai Phong city, and Vo Thanh Hai and Nguyen Muoi from central Thua Thien-Hue province.
Sixty-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong worked as a nurse in the battle fields in the southeast of the country and is suffering from serious illnesses as a result of her exposure to toxic chemicals sprayed by the US armed forces during the Vietnam war. The dioxin has also had direct links to the health problems of her three children.
Nguyen Van Quy (52), a former solider operating along the Ho Chi Minh trail, which was heavily sprayed with AO between 1972-1975, is currently suffering from stomach cancer. His three children also suffered from deformities due to their father's exposure to the herbicide with one of them dying right after birth.
Vo Thanh Hai (47) was working in Nam Dong region in Hue province from 1978-1993, which was heavily sprayed with toxic chemicals, during the war. He is now suffering from Hodgkin's and the lingering consequences of AO has caused the deaths of his two young children.
Nguyen Muoi (24), a son of a war veteran who was based in A Luoi valley in Thua Thien-Hue province, a hotbed of AO spraying during the Vietnam War, suffers from spina bifida as a result of his father's exposure to AO.
Thu said while in the US, the delegation would make stops in San Francisco, New York, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles to give press conferences and show screenings of AO victims in order to provide US citizens with information on the lingering ramifications of the toxic chemicals on Vietnamese AO victims.
According to the VAVA, around 4.8 million Vietnamese people have been exposed to dioxin with over 3 million of them eventually becoming AO victims.
The delegation was received by General Vo Nguyen Giap on June 6 before they leave for the US on June 9. (VNA)
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