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Prof. Dr. Hoang Dinh
Cau, Dr. Chirstopher
Hatfield and A Luoi
locals.
Experts from HCL and
the 10-80 Committee
locating hot spots with
dioxin in A Luoi
Valley.
Conducting survey on
the dioxin affected
areas around A-so
airfield.
Ho Thi Ha Tuoi and
her child with birth
deformity
Ho Thuong Phich in
A Luoi with ganglion
 .
Huynh Thi Doc in
Hoa Vang (Da Nang)
and her
dyschromia.
Nguyen Kim Thoa
suffering from
dyschromia from birth
due to her parents
exposure to
dioxin.
Nguyen Van Duoc, a
demobbed armyman
in A
Luoi, with chronic
desquamation.
| According to the US Defence Department's official data, in
the operation code-named "Ranch Hand", from 1961 to 1971, the US Army
sprayed 72 million litres of toxic chemicals over South Vietnam, including
44.338 million litres of Agent Orange, containing roughly 170 kilos of
dioxin (C12H4C4O2). A Luoi District of Thua Thien-Hue Province
alone was exposed to 434,812 gallons of the Agent Orange containing about
11 kgs of dioxin. The scientists' tests show one-millionth of a gram of
dioxin in 1 kilo of physical weight is enough to kill the infected animal,
and one-billionth of a gram in 1 kilo of physical weight of a
long-infected animal is enough to trigger horrible ailments such as
cancer, reproductive mutations and deformities in new borns.
I was fortunate enough
to join a trip made by important figures of two science institutions that
conducted sustainable investigations and analyses in 1994-1998, to
complete a 300-page scientific report, with a high reliability, on the
long residency of dioxin in A Luoi and its far-fetched disastrous effects
on the local inhabitants' health and eco-environment.
mmediately after the report, they came up with
long-term plans and a short-term programme, which was submitted to the
Government of Vietnam to gradually tackle the dioxin consequences. The two
institutions are the Vietnam national committee for investigation of toxic
chemicals used by the US army in the Vietnam War, known as the 10-80
Committee, with Prof. Dr. Hoang Dinh Cau as its President, and the
Hatfield Consultants Ltd. (known as HCL) of Canada, run by Mr. Christopher
Hatfield, President, and Mr. Thomas Boivin, a biological expert as its
Executive Manager.nbsp;
A trip 70 km west of Hue, along the winding hillsides of the
Truong Son (Long Range), will bring you to A Luoi District. It is a fairly
large valley, a junction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the location of
bitter battles between the armies of the two sides during the years
1965-1970. Scores of furious battles were fought, with hundreds and
thousands of tonnes of bombs and shells, and toxic chemicals, that the US
jets "carpeted" with in this small area. However, the "mythic road" was
never cut off, but the dense jungles were devastated. Thirty years have
elapsed, but the bald hills still remain, bathing in the baking sun.
Clustered among the bare hills are a few hamlets of impoverished people,
scraggy and suntanned, arduous and ailing.nbsp;
After listening to the reports by the district
leaders on the preparations for the relocation of 11 local farming
households from the area infected with dioxin exceeding the permissible
concentration, and on the planting of trees for the improvement of the
eco-environment, the joint-mission went to Dong Son Village, the residence
of the 11 farming households. This is located next to the runway of the
former A-so Airfield, where the US jets conducted special missions in the
"Ranch Hand" Operation.nbsp;
The Mission went to every household, learning about their
difficulties and listening to their requests for assistance. At the home
of Mr. and Mrs. Quynh Thien - Can Thien, of the Pa-ko ethnic group, they
could hardly hold back their tears: all of their 11 children were infected
with birth defects, i.e. cross-eyes with falling eyelids, long and short
legs, physical and mental retardedness, chronic skin-inflammations,
syzophrenia... At first, the old couple believed it to be a punishment for
their former guilty lives. But later they saw that 260 people from the
Dong Son Village, with a population of 1,151, were also inflicted with
birth deformities, so had their great grandfathers all been guilty, they
wondered? With the explanation of the 10-80 Committee officers, they came
to know that they had been infected with the toxic chemical sprayed "like
rain" over A Luoi by the US jets.
Asked about the purpose of their surveys,nbsp; Hatfield
said: "A Luoi was heavily sprayed with Agent Orange and other herbicides
during the American War. The area consists mainly of minority people who
have lived here for many generations. There are no industries or other
major pollution sources in the area. Any dioxin contamination in the area
could have only originated from the Agent Orange spraying
programme."
- After many years of
investigation and research, HCL has made public, on the Internet, a
300-page report on the dioxin residues in A Luoi, along with their
catastrophic and long-term consequences on the health of the local people
and eco-environment. Could you please sum up what HCL has
done?
With financial assistance from the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA), as well as contributions from the
Vietnamese Government, for the past six years, HCL and the 10-80 Committee
have worked closely with the Health Department of Thua Thien-Hue Province
and A Luoi District to investigate the dioxin situation in A Luoi Valley.
The studies have included collection and analysis of soils, sediments,
rice, manioc, fish, and other animals and plants in A Luoi for dioxin
content. The samples were sent for testing in seven industrially developed
countries. The studies have shown that dioxins are found in the area,
particularly near the former U.S. Special Forces base in A-so (Dong Son).
As a result of these findings, HCL and the 10-80 Committee have developed
a detailed mitigation plan to help people of A Luoi Valley minimize their
exposure to dioxins. The programme is planned for 2000-2001."
-You have often said, "Having worked for 6 years in A Luoi, I
see this locality as my second homeland". So what do you think about the A
Luoi people still living with the dioxin?
"HCL and the 10-80
Committee feel that there is an urgent need to conduct dioxin
investigations near all the former US and South Vietnamese military
installations in Vietnam, and that measures should be taken to help
provide health care to Vietnamese people who have been affected by Agent
Orange. Although the Agent Orange herbicide spraying programme was
undertaken over 30 years ago, the effects of the dioxin contamination from
this programme are still being felt today. International donor assistance,
including from the US, is needed to help solve this problem and to help
improve the environment and health of Vietnamese people in the future."
Christopher Hatfield once told Prof. Dr. Hoang Dinh
Cau: "I have been threatened, but I am not afraid. I am not engaged in
political activity, but only in scientific study, and science always calls
for objectivity, neither misrepresenting facts nor distorting history".
The report by HCL and 10-80 Committee is a genuine
scientific work and therefore it has been used by the mass media of quite
a few nations as evidence of the far-reaching repercussions and long-term
consequences of the US chemical war in Vietnam. For instance, the
20-minute broadcast on December 25, 1999 by CBS and the 15-minute
broadcast by the BBC not long after that.
Of course, to enhance the
convincingness in the two broadcasts, their cameras focused not only on
the activities of HCL and 10-80 Committee in A Luoi District, but on the
images of the dioxin victims in other localities, in Vietnam and in
America as well.
One
wonders what the authorities in Washington, and those who directly gave
orders to launch the "Ranch Hand" Operation - (in reality and in essence
it was the all-time largest scale chemical war in the history of warfare,
as asserted by Prof. Dr. Hoang Dinh Cau) thought when they watched these
TV broadcasts. One also wonders if US Secretary of State M. Albright has
read the HCL and 10-80 Committee Report. Because, not long ago, when
dealing with the consequences of the defoliants applied by the US in
Vietnam, she persistently claimed: "It is necessary to present scientific
proof!".nbsp;nbsp;
Story: Van
Chuc - Photos: Quang Phung - Duc Long
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