| US vets support Vietnamese AO victims |
| A fact-finding delegation of American veterans’ organizations has expressed strong commitment to side with Vietnamese victims of the US-sprayed Agent Orange in their struggle for justice and compensation. It demanded that the US Government meet its responsibility to heal the wounds of war in Vietnam. The delegation was composed of: - Mr. Michael Ferner, President of the Veterans for Peace (VFP) and a former Navy hospital corpsman; - Mr. Geoff Millard, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Iraq Veterans Against the War and a former Army National Guard soldier who had served in Iraq; - Mr. Michael Uhl, VFP Board memer and a former Army counter-intelligence officer who had served in Vietnam; - Mr. Ken Mayers, VFP Board member; - Ms. Susan Schnall, Board member of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC) and a former Navy nurse who had tended wounded soldiers during the Vietnam war; - and Mr. Paul Cox, VAORRC Board member and member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War who had served as a Marine in Vietnam. A joint statement between the delegation and the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin (VAVA), issued on April 7th at the end of the former’s two-week visit, says: “Over the last 10 days, the U.S. Veterans’ Delegation has visited victims throughout Vietnam – several generations who have been sickened, maimed and disabled by the chemical weapon, dioxin-contaminate herbicides like Agent Orange. The delegation witnessed the widespread human suffering, and was greatly impressed by the self organization, mutual assistance, and advocacy carried out by VAVA, the Vietnamese victims' national organization. “U.S. Veterans’ Delegation reported to VAVA about the continuing fight of U.S. veterans and their children affected by Agent Orange to secure assured full health care and compensation. “As veterans, some of whom formerly faced each other across the battlefield, we now work jointly to achieve justice for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims. “The U.S. Veterans’ Delegation will continue to organize US public opinion to demand that our government meet its responsibility to heal the wounds of war by providing comprehensive aid to Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims and to clean up the dioxin-saturated hot spots that remain in certain places in South of Vietnam. We will continue to press the U.S. chemical companies who profited from the manufacture of dioxin-laced Agent Orange to compensate their victims. “VAVA will continue to develop friendship and solidarity with U.S. veterans in support of their right to treatment and assistance for their Agent Orange related conditions and other conditions related to their service in subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The U.S. veterans and VAVA pledge to work together to achieve our common aims including exchanging future delegations, supporting VAVA’s Agent Orange delegations to the U.S. and building ever stronger friendship and unity for peace! “We both look forward to realizing these shared goals!” (sources: VAVA, VFP) |
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