A Vietnamese AO victim (Photo: VNA)Earlier, her lawsuit was rejected by the Crown Courtof Evry City of France which ruled that the US firms were acting on orders ofthe US government which was engaged in a “sovereignty act.”
The court said it did not have jurisdiction to judgea case involving the US government's wartime actions.
Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Rinh, Presidentof the VAVA, said he is not satisfied with the court’s ruling, saying it is notpersuasive considering the fact that the US firms had manufactured about 80 million litres of the AO defoliant for US forces to spray in Southern Vietnam, causingserious environmental and human health consequences.
The VAVA backs Nga’s viewpoint and will provide bothspiritual and material support for the Vietnamese-French woman to continuepursuing the lawsuit, he said.
Used to be a plaintiff in the VAVA’s 2004 lawsuit inthe US, VAVA Vice President Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong said she is not surprised atthe Evry court’s decision but felt sad as the court did not take into accountAO victims of Vietnam and France.
The lawsuit does not target the US government butthe US firms for their irresponsibility, she further explained.
Nga, 79, accuses 14 multinational chemicalcompanies, including herbicide manufacturer Monsanto (now under the Bayer Groupof Germany), of supplying the herbicide and defoliant chemical which was usedextensively by the US army between 1961-1971 in Vietnam, causing seriousconsequences for 4 million people and severely poisoning the environment.
The woman, also an AO victim, has pursued thelawsuit for over a decade, including six years in court.
Nga graduated from a Hanoi university in 1966 andbecame a war correspondent of the Liberation News Agency. She worked in some ofthe most heavily AO/dioxin affected areas in southern Vietnam, such as Cu Chi,Ben Cat, and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, ultimately experiencing contaminationherself. She has been suffering from a number of acute diseases.
Of her three children, the first died of heartdefects and the second suffers from a blood disease. A grandchild of Nga alsosuffers from AO-related illnesses.
With the support of several non-governmentalorganisations, she filed the lawsuit against the US companies for causinglasting harm to the health of herself, her children, and countless others, andof destroying the environment./.
VNA
