Vietnam War flew to Paris on Wednesday last week.

The three victims were united by the common goal of fighting for justice as they prepared to depose in front of the International Peoples’ Tribunal of Conscience which held a hearing on Agent Orange (AO) victims last weekend.

Ho Ngoc Chu from the central region’s Quang Ngai Province was fighting for the Vietnam Liberation Army and his base was located in a zone sprayed with AO from 1968 to the end of 1972.

The 73-year-old says he had been sprayed directly five times, including one instance in which he was wet from top to toe.

“When you are at war, you hardly avoid the chemical though you know it’s toxic. You were in the wild, you have to drink the tainted water and eat the cassava (root) after the plant has been killed by the poison.”

The impact of the chemical on his own health became obvious when at 36 years of age, he lost his teeth and began having bouts of fainting, skin inflammation, tumors and a spinal condition.

He and his son Ho Ngoc Tin were both infected with AO.

“Agent Orange has made our family miserable,” says his wife Quyen.

Their pension is barely enough to buy Chu’s medicine.

But Chu considers himself luckier than many other AO victims as he and his wife had given birth to their first child in 1966, when he was not affected.

“My girl is healthy like any normal person.”

Chu says, “It’s time the chemical producers and the US government stopped evading the evident truth about what AO has done to many Vietnamese people.

“I hope the international tribunal will be a success so that the AO victims feel consoled and I hope the outcome of the court will lead the US government to moral and righteous decisions.”

The other side

Mai Giang Vu from Ho Chi Minh City is also in his seventies, but fought for the US-backed Saigon regime, earning public contempt and comments like “he got what he deserves.”

In 1968, he joined US airforce soldiers in spraying the toxic defoliant in four provinces without knowing its purpose or its effect.

He was infected and so were all three of his sons, who started to suffer paralysis at age ten, were completely paralyzed by 15 and died in their twenties.

It was a shocking blow when doctors told him his sons died of the Agent Orange that he had been spraying.

“I’ve thought about committing suicide many times. But I cannot. I want to spend the rest of my life fighting for justice for victims like me.”

Second generation

The youngest representative of the three victims, Pham The Minh of Hai Phong City, is the son of war veterans.

The 34-year-old wished to become a teacher but many state education colleges rejected him because of his congenitally deformed legs.

In 1996, four years after he finished high school, Minh passed the test to teach English at a district vocational school.

When the school closed because of a shortage of funds, his students suggested he opens a class at home, and he has been doing that for more than 10 years now.

Minh’s mother Vu Thi Anh says, “The classroom is outdoors with a straw roof, the teacher is handicapped, but no student has dropped out of class. They have only increased in number.”

Last year, Minh opened a language and computing center to teach AO victims and disadvantaged children for free.

“Many people and I are indirect victims of the war. We suffer spiritual and physical pain every hour, every day,” Minh says.

“We request the US government and the defoliant producers to bear responsibility for the consequences left in Vietnam.”

Source: Tuoi Tre