The US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange (AO)/Dioxin has said that the US Government should play a key role in meeting the costs to address the AO/Dioxin legacy in Vietnam.
In its Declaration and Plan of Action for 2010-2019 released in Washington D.C. on June 16, the group recommends the Plan of Action for further international cooperation on addressing the AO/dioxin legacy in Vietnam .
The comprehensive plan of action, built by the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group, calls on the US government and other donors, including other countries, foundations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to provide an estimated 300 million USD over 10 years to clean dioxin-contaminated soils and restore damage ecosystems, as well as to expand services to people with disabilities linked to dioxin and to their families.
At a ceremony to make public the plan of action in Washington D.C, Walter Isaacson, Co-chairman of the joint US-Vietnam Diologue Group and President of Aspen Institute, and Charles Bailay, Director of the Ford Foundation's Special Initiative on AO/dioxin, told the Vietnam News Agency that they expect the US government to take the lead in meeting the costs and in raising fund for the plan’s costs.
"The cleanup of our mess from the Vietnam War will be far less costly than the Gulf oil spill that BP will have to clean up," said Isaacson.
Bailay said that the US and Vietnamese governments should continue working to address the legacy of AO in Vietnam . The legacy, in Bailay's words, "was ignored quite a long time" by the US .
Bailay and Susan Berresford, former President of the Ford Foundation and Convener of the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group, both confirmed that AO effects on soils and people in Vietnam could be addressed and the US could help Vietnam to do that work.
"This is a suitable moment to dedicate ourselves to this in humanitarian aspects,” said Berresford. “That is because the issue is complicated and sensitive for many years in the past and we now have enough records working together to show that it can be done in partnership and humanitarian fashions,” she added.
According to the plan, at least 4.5 million Vietnamese and 2.8 million US military personnel who served in Vietnam from 1962 to 1975 may have been exposed to AO or other contaminated herbicides.
The Vietnam Red Cross estimated that up to 3 million Vietnamese adults and children have suffered adverse health effects, including more than 150,000 of today's children who have birth defects.
Between 1962 and 1971, at airports and US operation centres throughout south Vietnam , more than 20 million gallons of herbicide were stored, mixed, handled and loaded into air planes for the spraying campaign.
Addressing the ceremony to release the plan of action, Scot Marciel, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Bureau and Ambassador for ASEAN Affairs of the US Department of State, hailed the Dialogue Group for having done a great work in building the plan.
The Dialogue Group's Plan of Action notes that 2010 marks 35 years since the war’s end, the 15th anniversary of renewed diplomatic relations between the US and Vietnam , and the 1,000th anniversary of Hanoi ’s founding.
"Joining in this effort would be a fitting way for the US to mark the important historic milestones of 2010 and to confirm and strengthen the growing US partnership" with Vietnam , the plan says./.
In its Declaration and Plan of Action for 2010-2019 released in Washington D.C. on June 16, the group recommends the Plan of Action for further international cooperation on addressing the AO/dioxin legacy in Vietnam .
The comprehensive plan of action, built by the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group, calls on the US government and other donors, including other countries, foundations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to provide an estimated 300 million USD over 10 years to clean dioxin-contaminated soils and restore damage ecosystems, as well as to expand services to people with disabilities linked to dioxin and to their families.
At a ceremony to make public the plan of action in Washington D.C, Walter Isaacson, Co-chairman of the joint US-Vietnam Diologue Group and President of Aspen Institute, and Charles Bailay, Director of the Ford Foundation's Special Initiative on AO/dioxin, told the Vietnam News Agency that they expect the US government to take the lead in meeting the costs and in raising fund for the plan’s costs.
"The cleanup of our mess from the Vietnam War will be far less costly than the Gulf oil spill that BP will have to clean up," said Isaacson.
Bailay said that the US and Vietnamese governments should continue working to address the legacy of AO in Vietnam . The legacy, in Bailay's words, "was ignored quite a long time" by the US .
Bailay and Susan Berresford, former President of the Ford Foundation and Convener of the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group, both confirmed that AO effects on soils and people in Vietnam could be addressed and the US could help Vietnam to do that work.
"This is a suitable moment to dedicate ourselves to this in humanitarian aspects,” said Berresford. “That is because the issue is complicated and sensitive for many years in the past and we now have enough records working together to show that it can be done in partnership and humanitarian fashions,” she added.
According to the plan, at least 4.5 million Vietnamese and 2.8 million US military personnel who served in Vietnam from 1962 to 1975 may have been exposed to AO or other contaminated herbicides.
The Vietnam Red Cross estimated that up to 3 million Vietnamese adults and children have suffered adverse health effects, including more than 150,000 of today's children who have birth defects.
Between 1962 and 1971, at airports and US operation centres throughout south Vietnam , more than 20 million gallons of herbicide were stored, mixed, handled and loaded into air planes for the spraying campaign.
Addressing the ceremony to release the plan of action, Scot Marciel, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Bureau and Ambassador for ASEAN Affairs of the US Department of State, hailed the Dialogue Group for having done a great work in building the plan.
The Dialogue Group's Plan of Action notes that 2010 marks 35 years since the war’s end, the 15th anniversary of renewed diplomatic relations between the US and Vietnam , and the 1,000th anniversary of Hanoi ’s founding.
"Joining in this effort would be a fitting way for the US to mark the important historic milestones of 2010 and to confirm and strengthen the growing US partnership" with Vietnam , the plan says./.
