Wed, Mar 17, 2004 - Page 16 News List

Calculating the cost of war

The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange is filing a lawsuit in New York against 38 US companies involved in the manufactureand supply of herbicides used during the Vietnam war

DPA , HANOI

"What I have said here in Vietnam over the last week, is that I don't think the legal strategy, which really did not serve us 20-something years ago, will serve today any better," Muller said.

When taking on the companies which made the herbicides, trying to provide irrefutable scientific proof that the dioxins caused illnesses and birth defects is not an easy task.

"I think we have all seen over time, you can argue the science of both sides of anything that gets put on the table," Muller said.

Professor Nhan says that the lawsuit has been taken as a last resort, and that because some US veterans already get compensation, providing irrefutable proof of dioxin-linked illness should not fall on Vietnam.

"In the US among veterans there are victims of Agent Orange so why do we have to carry out scientific research to say that there are Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange," the former health minister said.

The US can easily afford to compensate Vietnamese people who have been affected by dioxin exposure, the professor believes.

"Americans have no lack of money. They send soldiers to many parts of the world, they spend a lot of money on that," he said.

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