Soc Trang community backs AO victim lawsuit in France

French-Vietnamese Tran To Nga (Source: VNA)

As much as 120 million VND (5,400 USD) raised by people in the southern province of Soc Trang was handed over to French-Vietnamese Tran To Nga on August 12 to support her lawsuit against US chemical companies to seek justice for Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin victims.

Nga, who spent 5 years collecting legal and scientific evidence for the process, expressed her gratitude for the assistance, saying it urges her to pursue the case to its finality.

She said she hopes Vietnamese people will continue to back her.
The Vietnam Association of Victims of AO/dioxin (VAVA) has launched a series of campaigns nationwide to call for support for Nga’s lawsuit.

VAVA has so far mobilised over 25,000 EUR for the lawsuit. It also sent open letters to the Crown Court of Evry city in the suburb of Paris and lawyers requesting an expedient trial.

Nga, who is now 73, became a war correspondent of the Liberation News Agency after graduating from a Hanoi university in 1966. She worked in some of the most heavily AO/dioxin-contaminated areas in southern Vietnam such as Cu Chi, Ben Cat and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, ultimately experiencing the effects of contamination.

Nga suffers from numerous diseases as a consequence of her exposure to AO/dioxin, many of which have been recognised by the US government as associated with the toxic chemical.

Among her three children, the first child died of heart defects while the second suffered from a blood disease.

In 2009, Nga appeared as a witness at the Court of Public Opinion in Paris, France against US chemical companies.

In May 2014, she filed a lawsuit against 26 US chemical firms for producing chemical toxins sprayed by the US army in the war in Vietnam, causing serious consequences for the community, her and her children.

The complaint and related documents were handed over to the Crown Court and the 26 US companies, 12 of which later hired lawyers.

The Paris-based William Bourdon Forestier law firm is representing Nga in the lawsuit.

From 1961-1971, US troops sprayed more than 80 million litres of herbicides—44 million litres of which were AO containing nearly 370 kilograms of dioxin—over southern Vietnam.

As a result, around 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed to the toxic chemical. Many of the victims have died and millions of their descendants are living with deformities and diseases as a direct result of the chemical’s effects.-VNA