Justice for Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims: 2008

Again this year Vietnamesse Agent Orange victims are touring the United States seeking justice, Our Responsibility, for the long term damage done to their countries citizens from our occupation of their country not so long ago.

Delegation of Vietnamese Women Agent Orange Victims Visit 10 US Cities, Sept 28-Oct 31, 2008

Co-sponsors: Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, National Lawyers Guild & United For Peace & Justice

Organizing groups for the delegation have formed & are planning events in  9/28 – 10/5:

New York City, New Jersey & New Haven, Welcoming reception (9/30), meeting with lawyers (10/1), Columbia U Law School (10/2), Dominican community (10/3 at 2005 Amsterdam Ave. 7pm), public event at Musician’s Union Local 803, 322 West 48th St. Manhattan (10/04 6:30pm), churches, contact us

10/6 – 10/8: Washington DC, press conference at the Supreme Court, meetings with Congress representatives, contact us

10/9 – 10/12: Birmingham AL, meetings with lawyers, contact us

10/12 – 10/14: Pittsburgh PA, Reconciliation & Healing: Remembering Vietnam, La Roche College, contact us

10/15 – 10/18: Detroit MI, National Lawyers Guild, Law for the People Convention, Friday 10/17

10/19 – 10/21: Chicago IL, NPR Worldview, Roosevelt University, Hull House, U of Illinois at Chicago

10/22 – 10/25: Portland & Eugene OR, 10/22 Knight Law School, 7pm (Eugene).

10/26 – 10/28: Los Angeles CA, Reception by CHEER, UCLA Labor Center, Strategy Center & SoCA for Youth, contact us

10/28 – 10/31: Bay Area CA, events in Laney College, Eastside Arts Alliance (Oakland, 10/28), Glasner Center (Santa Rosa, 10/29), and at Veterans Building (San Francisco, 10/30 7pm), contact us

The Delegation: Both women are Agent Orange victims.

Ms. TR?N TH? HOAN (age 21), was born on December 16, 1986 in ??c Linh district of Bình Thu?n province in Central Vietnam. She is a second generation victim of Agent Orange. Her mother was exposed to Agent Orange as a result of the war. She was born without two legs and one hand is seriously atrophied.

From the time she was12 years old, Hoan has lived in Peace Village II, the Agent Orange center at T? D? Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City.

Hoan is now a college student in computer science in Ho Chi Minh City and is fluent in English. This is her first visit to the U.S. See video with Hoan.

Mrs. ??NG H?NG NH?T was born on December 12, 1936, married in 1959 and gave birth to a healthy son in 1960.

Between 1961 and 1966 she joined the resistance forces in the Southeastern region of Vietnam (included Tây Ninh, Bình D??ng, C? Chi), which was heavily sprayed with Agent Orange. She was directly exposed to Agent Orange and suffered from skin rashes and diarrhea. Between 1966 and 1972 she was arrested and imprisoned by the US-supported government.

In 1973 and again in 1975 Ms. Nhut suffered miscarriages early in her pregnancy. In 1975, she again suffered a miscarriage. In 1977, she gave birth to a congenitally deformed still-born child. In 1980, she had another miscarriage. In 2002, she had surgery to remove an intestinal tumor. In 2003, she underwent another operation to remove a tumor from her thyroid. She now has cancer.

Ms. Nhut’s husband was a resistance fighter in the same region between 1960 and 1975 and was also exposed to Agent Orange. He was later diagnosed with intestinal cancer, metastasizing to the lung and the liver. He died in May, 1999. Vietnamese Struggle with Agent Orange

Lastly, Ms. ?INH TH? MINH HUY?N is accompanying as an Interpreter. Ms. Huyen is from the Vietnam Peace & Development Foundation and Vietnam Association for Protection of Children’s Rights.

Visit Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign site to find out much more and to help if you feel there is a responsibility we should embrace for our actions as a society and country against others, especially those that have done nothing to us!

Last year I did a few posts about their Visit to the United States seeking Justice for what we had done during our occupation of their country in the Courts here as to the use of Defoliants {WMD’s} especially Agent Orange which still poisons their country. You can visit Here, as well as Here and Here and finally Here.

In that last link I have a Video I put together of a song, written by a Vietnamesse Artist, about Defoliants in Vietnam, and was Linked to for Worldwide listening connected to the Agent Orange Justice Movement, this is that Video: