Corrosive Legacy of War Gradually Yielding to Cooperative Healing
Effort
HANOI, Vietnam, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Thirty-three years
after the end of the Vietnam War, a series of new measures to address the
spread and impact of toxic dioxin used in the war are beginning to yield
results, according to a high-level working group of Vietnamese and American
leaders working to address the legacy of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
The US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin today said that
the first round of dioxin containment measures are now in place in and
around the Danang airport, one of Vietnam's largest hot spots of dioxin
contamination. After a week of visits across the country, the joint
high-level group announced progress on this and a number of other priority
issues, including the expansion of services to people with disabilities and
key steps toward establishing a high-resolution dioxin testing lab.
"Dioxin has had a profound impact on generations of Vietnamese
families," said Madame Ton Nu Thi Ninh, President of the Founding Committee
of Tri Viet University and head of the Vietnamese delegation. "It has
devastated lives and the environment for decades. But the initial progress
we're seeing is very heartening. It is a meaningful contribution toward
addressing the toxic legacy of the war."
In the 1960s, more than 21 million gallons of Agent Orange and other
herbicides were sprayed by the US to destroy the forest canopy and flush
out adversary forces. Decades later, one of the world's most toxic
chemicals, dioxin, is still present in the environment, particularly in the
soil around former US military bases. There have been an alarming number of
birth defects, cancers and health problems among both American troops and
their families and generations of Vietnamese veterans and civilians.
"The old politics of this issue have held back solutions for too long,"
said Walter Isaacson, President of the Aspen Institute and leader of the
U.S. delegation. "The new measures now in place at Danang show that
governments and other partners working together in a practical and
humanitarian way can change the dynamics of the issue and bring about real
and lasting change."
The US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin, funded by the
Ford Foundation, brings together policy analysts, scientists, business
figures and other leaders from both countries to develop responses to the
continuing human and environmental consequences of Agent Orange use during
the war.
Launched last June, the group toured Vietnam to assess progress on five
initial priorities. At a press conference today, the Dialogue Group
detailed early progress:
Expanded services to people with disabilities
A range of health, education and vocational training services is being
provided to children and young people with disabilities through pilot
programs in the provinces of Thai Binh, Danang and Quang Nam, with a fourth
pilot in Dong Nai under development. Additional donors are soon expected to
announce support to extend programs to more provinces and greater numbers
of people with disabilities.
High resolution Dioxin Laboratory
Committee 33 has completed a detailed proposal for a new laboratory
equipped to detect dioxin at the very low concentrations at which it still
remains poisonous to people. The Dialogue Group has been working with a
number of donors interested in funding this critical project.
Landscape restoration
The Center for Natural Resources and Environment at Vietnam National
University-Hanoi is collaborating with agricultural officials and NGOs in
two provinces in central Vietnam to return damaged land to productive use.
Programs will enable farmers to select and cultivate species of trees and
other vegetation appropriate to landscape renewal.
Dioxin remediation at Danang
The first two phases of dioxin remediation at the airport have been
completed. In the first phase the nature and extent of dioxin contamination
in soils and its migration through the food chain to people in close
proximity were documented. In the second phase, interim engineering works
on the airport have contained the dioxin to its current location.
Prohibiting access to the contaminated areas, including the lake at the
north end of the airport, has broken the pathways through which dioxin has
posed a threat to public health. Funds are awaited for the third phase--the
permanent clean-up of the dioxin.
Public education in the US
The Dialogue Group has generated a series of articles to draw the
attention to the legacy of Agent Orange in Vietnam -- as well as the
current breakthroughs and the need for more partners to join the effort.
The Aspen Institute, a Washington-based think tank and meeting center, is
launching a series of briefings and policy papers to engage key leaders.
To date the Ford Foundation has made the biggest investment in the
initiative, committing nearly $5 million. The U.S. Congress has earmarked
$3 million for cleanup efforts, but the funds have yet to be released.
"The progress we've seen in the last eight months makes a powerful
statement. It's a perfect example of how non-profit, government and
business leaders can work together to find common responses to seemingly
intractable issues," said Susan V. Berresford, former president of the Ford
Foundation and convener of the Dialogue Group. "There is much more to do,
and we look forward to greater involvement and leadership from key players
on both sides of the Pacific. We now know that we have a real opportunity
to change how this story ends."
About the Dialogue Group
The Dialogue Group is a non-government initiative that aims to build a
collective, bipartisan humanitarian response where diplomatic discussion
has proved difficult. It builds on work done by the Vietnamese themselves,
the Ford Foundation, the US State Department and Environmental Protection
Agency, as well as US and international NGOs, to address dioxin
contamination throughout Vietnam.
Former Ford Foundation President Susan V. Berresford is convener and
chair of the Dialogue Group. Its Vietnamese and American members include
(respectively):
-- Madame Ton Nu Thi Ninh, President, Founding Committee, Tri Viet
University Project, and former Ambassador and Vice Chair of the Foreign
Affairs Committee of the Viet Nam National Assembly
-- Prof. Vo Quy, Center for Natural Resources & Environmental Studies,
Vietnam National University, Hanoi
-- Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, Chief of Obstetrics & Gynecology of the
Medical University of Ho Chi Minh City and Director-General, Ngoc Tam
Hospital Corporation
-- Do Hoang Long, Deputy Director, People to People Relations
Department, Party External Relations Commission
-- Lt. General Phung Khac Dang, Vice President, Vietnam Veterans
Association
-- Walter Isaacson, President and CEO, The Aspen Institute
-- Mary Dolan-Hogrefe, Vice President and Senior Advisor, National
Organization on Disability, and Director, World Committee on Disability
-- William Mayer, President and CEO, Park Avenue Equity Partners, and
Chairman Emeritus, the Aspen Institute
-- Dr. Vaughan Turekian, Chief International Officer, American Academy
for the Advancement of Science
-- Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey and former
cabinet secretary for the US Environmental Protection Agency
About the Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute, founded in 1950, is an international nonprofit
organization dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership and open-minded
dialogue. Through seminars, policy programs, conferences, and leadership
development initiatives, the Institute and its international partners seek
to promote nonpartisan inquiry and an appreciation for timeless values. The
Institute is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has campuses in Aspen,
Colo., and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Its international
network includes partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Lyon, Tokyo, New
Delhi, and Bucharest, and leadership programs in Africa, Central America,
and India.
About the Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making
organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for
innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of
strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting
international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With
headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle
East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.
SOURCE Ford Foundation
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.fordfound.org
CONTACT:
Ford Foundation press office, +1-212-573-5128
|
