On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first use of Agent Orange and other herbicides on Vietnam that falls on 10 August 2011, the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) expresses its unqualified support to the appeal issued by the Vietnam Association for the Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA).
The indiscriminate and wide-spread spraying of nearly 80 million liters of dioxin-laced “Agent Orange” and other herbicides from 1961 to 1971 had wrecked havoc in Vietnam by destroying over 3 million hectares of forests, mangroves and cultivable land and rendering over 3 million Vietnamese people crippled and disease- stricken. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of such victims have died in agonizing circumstances and hundreds of thousands
of their progenies were born with unimaginable birth defects. The Agent Orange victims are a living example of the long-lasting and horrendous effects of chemical warfare.
The United States Government, which is guilty of conducting chemical warfare in Vietnam, has to be held accountable for committing this horrendous war crime against the Vietnamese people and has to be brought to justice. The U.S. Government and the chemical companies – Dow, Monsanto, etc., which had manufactured and supplied the toxic chemicals – must be compelled to pay adequate compensation to all the victims of “Agent Orange” and held responsible for remediation of the dioxin-contaminated land and water bodies in Vietnam.
The CNDP expresses its full support to the just demands of the victims of “Agent Orange” and, hereby, assures them that it will do all it can to rally the support of the Government and people of India and as well as of concerned people elsewhere in the quest of the Vietnamese people for justice.
N. D. Jayaprakash
Achin Vanaik
J. Sri Raman
Sukla Sen
Anil Chaudhary
6 August 2011