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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