VAVA will keep claiming justice for AO victims till U.S. chemical firms accept full responsibility

As one of the essential missions of the VAVA is to struggle for justice of AO victims, VAVA took action against US chemical producers that had supplied dioxin chemicals (including Agent Orange) to the U.S. Army to use during the war in Vietnam.

With the effective support of American lawyers, VAVA started the first lawsuit against American chemical producers. The lawsuit was conducted at trial court and court of appeal. The lawsuit has drawn much attention from the public opinion in the U.S. as well as from the international community even though the Supreme Court of the United States issued an announcement on March 2^nd, 2009, denying the appeal submitted by the Vietnamese AO victims.

Following Directive 43–CT/TW issued on May 14^th, 2015 by the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee on enhancing diplomatic activities to persistently struggle for justice of the Vietnamese AO victims in line with Vietnam’s foreign policy in the current context, VAVA has increased forms of the struggle and is preparing for the second lawsuit. Recently, VAVA and American Lawyers have signed a cooperation deal, under which the two sides work closely on the lawsuit and regularly exchange information related to the case. The petition against the American chemical firms has been drafted by the two sides and the American lawyers are considering about the suitable time to submit the petition to U.S. court.

Một NNCĐDC ở Việt Nam

At the same time, VAVA has developed various forms of people-to-people diplomacy, mobilized foreign organizations and individuals to advocate Vietnamese AO victims’ struggle against the US chemical firms, requesting the US chemical producers to be responsible for healing the environment in Vietnam and supporting Vietnamese AO victims. In doing so, VAVA lobbied Congressman Barbara Lee to early submit the US Congress a new bill on the aid for AO victims (HR-334 Act was first introduced at the US Congress on January 5^th, 2017). So far, 23 politicians have co-sponsored the bill.

Furthermore, VAVA has always stood side by side with Ms. Tran To Nga, a Vietnamese French AO victim, who took legal proceedings against the 26 American chemical firms to the Court of Evry city, Paris, suing these poisonous chemical producers. The case still remains underway.

The proceedings against the American chemical firms for justice of Vietnamese AO victims may take a long time as these companies have not yet taken their responsibility for the production and supply of the poisonous dioxin chemical of Agent Orange for the US Army to use in Vietnam during the past war so they have not yet paid any compensation to Vietnamese AO victims as well as the poisoned environment in the country. Despite their unjust and irrational denial, VAVA will persistently pursue the proceedings against them until they admit to their faults and assume their responsibility for compensating Vietnamese AO victims as well as for joining the Vietnamese Government in detoxifying the poisoned environment in the country.