Decades after the Vietnam War, victims wither
away with scant efforts being made to tackle the deadly chemicals.
DA
NANG, Vietnam – The frail bodies of Toan La and his brother sat paralyzed
against a wall to prop up their crooked spines, one of many ailments thought to
be inherited from their grandfather’s exposure to Agent Orange – a toxic
herbicide widely used during the Vietnam War.
Born
normal, the Vietnamese brothers grew mysteriously weak as young children and
their health has since decayed from a crippling neuromuscular disorder.
Now
aged 18 and 22, they are nearly immobile and spend much of their lives stuck
inside one room, watching their muscles wither away.
“I am
like a baby. I cannot move, take care of myself or do anything that I want,”
said Toan, the oldest brother. “I feel that life is so meaningless and I
have no more purpose.”
Roughly
three million people including 150,000 children born with birth defects have
been affected by Agent Orange, according to the Vietnam Red Cross.
As a
result, the country’s rate of birth defects has quadrupled after the controversial war.
From
1961 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed almost 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and similar noxious
chemicals over almost a quarter of southern Vietnam to strip foliage and deny
communist fighters cover.
Activists
claim it was the largest chemical warfare campaign ever conducted.
“The
consequences that it left behind are the most severe in the history of
mankind,” said Ha Thi Mac, one of the deputy directors for the Vietnam
Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA).
Dioxin,
a key ingredient in the herbicides, is linked to a myriad of reproductive and
development issues as well as other severe health problems in Vietnamese people
and U.S. veterans who served in the war.
The
deadly substance can have a lifespan of more than 100 years and still pollutes food and water sources,
researchers say.
Despite
the evidence, the “U.S. government has never accepted responsibility for the
damage it caused to the people and the environments in Vietnam,” Mac said.
Lingering
Aftermath
While
dodging blame for its destruction, the U.S. has agreed to help clean up the Da
Nang airport where large stockpiles of Agent Orange were stored during the war.
The
move came as both nations looked to tighten relations as part of the U.S. pivot
to offset Chinese influence in the region.
In
April, the $84 million project slated to finish in 2016 officially began to
treat tainted soil around the airport, now a bustling international travel hub.
Plans
are also underway to assess the worst polluted site at Bien Hoa airbase near Ho
Chi Minh City, which has three times more contaminated soil.
But
dozens of other toxic “hotspots” across the country remain untouched and it is
not yet known if similar multimillion dollar projects will occur.
The
U.S. government also launched a three-year, $9 million project in 2012 to
support disabled people regardless of their condition, officials say.
Agent
Orange victims are not openly targeted with the funds.
The
reason is that “the extent of exposure to dioxin due to Agent Orange among the
Vietnamese people and the link between such exposure and particular [health]
effects is uncertain,” Spencer Cryder, spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in
Hanoi, said.
Yet the
U.S. government recognizes 15 diseases and birth defects used to compensate an
estimated 250,000 American vets exposed to Agent Orange. In 2010, the U.S.
Congress set aside $13.4
billion to cover these costs.
The
Aspen Institute, an international think tank that has studied the ongoing
crisis in Vietnam, urged the U.S. to pay the bulk of a proposed $450 million plan over 10 years to clean hotspots,
restore ruined ecosystems, and boost services to victims and their families.
Currently
only around 200,000 victims receive $20 monthly subsidies by the Vietnamese
government, not enough for loved ones to care of them.
Families
often have several sick relatives over multiple generations due to the genetic
damage caused by dioxin, advocates say.
“It’s a
pretty sad situation to see what has happened to entire families because of
Agent Orange,” said Mark Conroy, senior advisor for East Meets West, a
regional non-profit. “It’s frustrating not being able to get funding to help
these victims.”
A
casualty of its own economic success, Vietnam has seen foreign donors vanish
after it emerged as a lower middle-income country in 2009.
“At the
end of the day, it will have to come down to the Vietnamese government paying
attention to them because [foreign donors] are not going to do it forever,”
said Conroy, whose group once assisted victims up until 2010 when funds dried
up.
To take
matters into their own hands, Vietnamese victims filed a lawsuit in 2004 to
hold chemical companies, mainly Dow Chemical and Monsanto, responsible for
producing the dioxin-laced herbicides.
The
same federal judge, who earlier ordered the companies to pay a $180 million settlement for affected U.S. vets in
1984, dismissed the case arguing that the U.S. government contractors had
immunity. The Supreme Court denied a petition to hear the case in 2009.
‘A
Life Imprisonment’
Just
south of this central Vietnam city is a small orphanage, home to several
deformed children discarded by their parents.
Inside,
a toddler with a curved spine that bends grotesquely backward is seen lying
next to a sick child with an enlarged head.
Nearby,
a mentally challenged boy is tethered to a wall for his safety while another
one sits confused in an unpadded metal crib. Behind them, a paralyzed boy with
a skeletal frame whimpers as flies crawl over him.
Despite
the varying ailments, it is believed that Agent Orange is their common culprit.
Like
countless others, these orphans may be trapped in a life of wasting away since
Vietnam lacks early intervention for birth defects and physical therapy to
recover damaged bodies, advocates say.
“Their
living standards are difficult and they are the poorest among the poor in our
society,” VAVA’s Mac said of most victims. “Many of them are not capable of being
self-reliant.”
For
those who are not bedridden, VAVA and other non-profit groups offer education
and vocational training from basic hygiene to computer skills that allow
victims to be independent and relieve some of the burden on their families.
But programs
are underfunded and reach fewer than 10 percent of those in need.
“Funding
is not always stable,” Dinh Van Tuyen, vice director of the Friendship
Village, a boarding school for 120 affected youth in Hanoi. “There is
financial support for Agent Orange victims but it is not enough to improve
their lives.”
Children
who only suffer from less serious disorders can be helped at the village, he
said.
As for
the rest including Toan and his brother, the outlook remains bleak if they can
ever be liberated from their maladies.
“If
this was a death sentence, it would be better,” Toan said. “But this pain still
exists and I deal with it on a daily basis.”
“It’s
like a life imprisonment.”
Sean
Kimmons
Sean
Kimmons is a freelance reporter/photographer based in Thailand who has reported
on political instability and violence in the Iraq War, the Golden Triangle
illicit drug trade and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Southeast Asia, among many
other topics.
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Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
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