Vietnam Agent Orange victims file 1st US suit

[dudeness]

HANOI (Reuters) - Three Vietnamese who say they or their families became ill from Agent Orange defoliant used by the United States in the war nearly 30 years ago have filed the first lawsuit against makers of the product, a victims group said. The two women and a man filed the suit seeking unspecified damages on January 30 in a New York court, an official at the Vietnam Association of Agent Orange Victims told Reuters on Wednesday. The group was formed last month.

Dow Chemical Co. and Monsanto Co., the two largest makers of the chemical named after the colour of its containers, were among the more than 20 firms named in the suit, the official said.

One of the plaintiffs is Phan Thi Phi Phi, who is suing for illnesses from exposure to the chemical, which was sprayed from aircraft.

"I do not want to do this for myself as it has been a long time already, but in Vietnam, the poorest, the most miserable and most discriminated ones are the Agent Orange victims so anything I can do for them, I will," she told Reuters.

American veterans of the Vietnam War exposed to the herbicide have complained for years about a variety of health problems and have also sued the makers.

In 1984, Dow and Monsanto agreed to pay $180 million to US veterans. The chemical was used by US forces to deny the communists food and jungle cover.

snip..http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3547549&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

justice would be served if the war criminal Kissinger were placed in the dock..