Eyeing Landmark Verdict in Roundup Cancer Case, Vietnam Demands Monsanto Be Held Liable over Agent Orange
MILITARISM, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, ASIA--PACIFIC, JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENT, ORGANIC, GMO, GENETIC ENGINEERING, 3 Sep 2018
Andrea Germanos – Common Dreams
“We believe Monsanto should be responsible for compensating Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange for the damages caused by the company’s herbicides.”
![](https://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/agentorange-monsanto-verdict.jpg)
A man wears a shirt calling for justice for Agent Orange victims during the March Against Monsanto in San Francisco on May 23, 2015.
(Photo: Peg Hunter/flickr/cc)
27 Aug 2018 – In the wake of a U.S. court ordering Monsanto to pay $289 million in damages to man who says its weedkiller Roundup caused his cancer, Vietnam has called on the agrichemical giant to pay reparations to Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.
“This case is a precedent that rejects previous arguments that the herbicides supplied to the U.S. military by Monsanto and other U.S. chemical companies during the Vietnam War are not harmful to people’s health,” spokesperson for the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Phuong Tra said to reporters last week.
“We believe Monsanto should be responsible for compensating Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange for the damages caused by the company’s herbicides,” she said.
Monsanto, now a unit of Bayer, was one of the manufacturers of Agent Orange. The U.S. dumped roughly 45 million liters of the notorious compound, which contained dioxin, on Vietnam during the war, unleashing “a slow-onset disaster whose devastating economic, health, and ecological impacts … are still being felt today.” With its long-lasting impacts on the Vietnamese, as well as U.S. service-members, it’s been called “one of the most tragic legacies of the war.”
Viet Nam News reported Sunday that the Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), which is working for justice on behalf of roughly 3 million Vietnamese affected by the chemical warfare, is also hopeful given the new verdict.
“No matter how difficult and prolonged this case might be, we won’t ever give up on it, for the sake of the millions of Vietnamese victims,” said Quách Thành Vinh, VAVA’s chief of office and director of liaison lawyers office.
Former U.S. school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson, who’s suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, secured his legal victory against Monsanto on Aug. 10. CNN reported that the ruling “could set a massive precedent for thousands of other cases claiming Monsanto’s famous herbicide causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
Monsanto has said it is appealing the verdict.
_____________________________________________
Andrea Germanos is senior editor and a staff writer at Common Dreams.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Go to Original – commondreams.org
DISCLAIMER: The statements, views and opinions expressed in pieces republished here are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of TMS. In accordance with title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. TMS has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is TMS endorsed or sponsored by the originator. “GO TO ORIGINAL” links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the “GO TO ORIGINAL” links. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Read more
Click here to go to the current weekly digest or pick another article:
MILITARISM:
- US Approves $20 Billion Arms Deal for Israel
- Asymmetric Warfare and Its Characteristics
- Human Rights Watch Denounces Israel’s Use of White Phosphorus against Lebanon
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION:
- The Murder of Others
- World-Ending Maneuvers?
- 79 Years after Hiroshima & Nagasaki: A Grim Reminder of Nuclear Annihilation
ASIA--PACIFIC:
- US Military Base in Bangladesh at the Heart of a Revolution
- Pakistan: Let the Nation Be Free of Criminals
- A Whirlwind Visit to Beijing for the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence
JUSTICE:
- The International Court of Justice Finds That BDS Is Not Merely a Right, but an Obligation
- Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC on Palestine-Israel
- 'Nobody Is Above the Law': ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants for Israel, Hamas Leaders
ENVIRONMENT:
- Cry, the Beloved World
- Fake Climate Solutions Spread Across Latin America
- World’s Largest CO2 Removal Plant Opens in Iceland
ORGANIC, GMO, GENETIC ENGINEERING: