Delegates at a round table discussion on the consequences of Agent Orange (AO/Dioxin) in North Carolina, the US, pledged USD30 million for Vietnam to help it clean AO-infected areas, improve the eco-system and expand services for people with disabilities.
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At the talks on February 18 at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, the delegates said that under a special initiative on AO/Dioxin, around USD300 million will be raised within ten years to help Vietnam deal with AO/Dioxin-related issues.
So far, approximately 10 percent of the total has been collected, including USD15 million pledged by the US Government for the initiative.
Director of the Ford Foundation Special Initiative on Agent Orange/Dioxin, Charles Bailey said overcoming the consequences of AO/Dioxin is part of the unfinished work left by the US war in Vietnam.
Other delegates assumed that issues related to human health and the environment caused by AO/Dioxin currently affect about 3 million Vietnamese people, including 150,000 children.Earlier, experts at a seminar on AO/Dioxin, also held on February 16 in North Carolina said many Vietnamese children suffered serious birth deformities and even the symptoms of mental problems. This was proved by researches conducted after the end of the US war in Vietnam in 1975. Therefore, they deemed it necessary to help Vietnam overcome the consequences of AO/Dioxin poisoning as a humanitarian issue.
On February 19, the Daily Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina ran an article condemning the US army’s spray of herbicides with a strong effect over Vietnam in the 1960s.
AO exterminated millions of plants and millions of people, including US soldiers. As many as 4.5 million Vietnamese people and hundreds of US soldiers have been exposed to AO.
