Blog Finally some money for the Agent Orange victims
February 9th, 2007Finally, more than 30 years after the war, USA is spending some money to clean up after the horror damage done in Vietnam by Agent Orange.
It was January 2000. I was visiting a village in the Alui valley in Vietnam. Driving for hours on a muddy road it was impossible not to notice how most of the trees were gone.
- Agent Orange, said the people in the valley.
- There used to be trees here before the American war.
Then I talked to Nguyen Thi Thao. She had moved to the valley in 1977, two years after the war.
How could she know that her decision would give her a handicapped child years later?
But there was dioxin in the ground. Dioxin is an ingredient in Agent Orange, a herbicide US forces sprayed to destroy vegetation and help them fight in forest areas during the war.
Nguyen Thi Thao was crying as she held her five year old son. He had lost most of his hair and the legs were crippled. I tried to play with him, but received no reaction whatsoever.
It was an everyday story in the village. Of 1700 residents more than 300 had injures believed to have been caused by Agent Orange.
And now - in 2007 - for the first time USA is spending money for a study to help remove the chemical dioxin from the soil in Vietnam, writes BBC.
But why would it need to take more than 30 years before the first 1 million dollars were spent helping the victims of Agent Orange?
Why?
I have not a clue. Not a clue at all.
Allright, USA is kind of disputing the link between its use of the Agent Orange pesticide and the health damages.
The evidence, though, is overwhelming.
So, Mr. Bush, why not swallow the political pride and reach out a hand to the 4 million people believed to have been affected by the pesticide?
Is that what you are finally doing?
Because the victims are innocent in any case. And they deserve help.
1 million dollar has been granted in this first careful step. It certainly is not much.
But we cross our fingers that it is the sign of a much bigger reconciliation process.
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