US Companies
Seek Dismissal Of Agent Orange Lawsuit
By Christine
Kearney
02 March , 2005
Planet
Ark
NEW YORK - Attorneys representing major US chemical companies
defended them against charges Monday that the companies committed war
crimes by supplying the military with Agent Orange during the Vietnam
War.
The lawyers asked a US District Court judge in Brooklyn, to dismiss
a civil suit that seeks class action status claiming that up to 4 million
Vietnamese people suffered from dioxin poisoning due to Agent Orange.
The case is regarded
as a pivotal test of the reach of US courts as it considers the power
of the president to authorize use of hazardous materials during war.
More than 30 companies
are named in the lawsuit, among them Dow Chemical Co. and Monsanto Co..
If the lawsuit were
successful, billions of dollars could be awarded toward an environmental
cleanup and in compensation to the Vietnamese people.
Judge Jack Weinstein
is expected to issue a written decision in the next few weeks.
The defoliant Agent
Orange was dumped by US warplanes on Vietnamese forests between 1962
and 1971 to destroy Vietnamese sources of food and cover.
Among the chemical
by-products of Agent Orange is dioxin, a compound that can cause cancer,
deformities and organ dysfunction.
The chemical companies
argue they produced Agent Orange according to US government specifications
and that there has never been a proven connection between Agent Orange
and the health problems it is accused of causing.
Outside the courtroom,
Andrew Frey, an attorney for Dow, said the issue should be decided by
"diplomatic negotiations" and not by the lawsuit.
"We think it
is up to the United States government to decide whether what it did
was wrongful and whether it should pay restitution," he said.
He added that international
laws in the 1960s did not recognize corporate liability and the courts
should be cautious about ruling on cases affecting the president's power.
"The court
should not be second-guessing the president's decisions, which were
made after studying the human health consequences and as a military
judgment and very likely saved a lot more lives than it injured,"
he said.
One of the plaintiffs,
Dr Phan Thi Phi Phi, said through a translator she worked in an area
that was heavily sprayed with Agent Orange and suffered four miscarriages
over two years during the early 1970s.
She said the effect
had been "devastating" and that she knew of many other cases
like her own.
"We did not
know what happened to us, what was the cause of it, so we were very
sad because we had so many miscarriages and we could not have children,"
she said.
Her attorney Constantine
Kokkoris argued that people in Vietnam continued to be contaminated
by eating tainted food and drinking tainted water.
Lawyers for the
plaintiffs have cited precedent from the years following World War Two,
when makers of the gas used in Nazi death camps were convicted of war
crimes.
In 1984 seven chemical
companies, including Dow and Monsanto, agreed to settle out of court
for $180 million to U.S veterans who claimed Agent Orange caused cancer
and other health problems.
Dave Cline, President
of the Veterans for Peace, said it was important the Vietnamese people
were treated the same way as US veterans.
"We have been
able to get American Veterans recognized and now it is time to give
Vietnamese victims the same justice," he said.
Other companies
named in the lawsuit are Monsanto Chemical Co., Pharmacia Corp., Hercules
Inc., Occidental Chemical Corp., Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp., Maxus
Energy Corp., Thompson Hayward Chemical Co., Harcros Chemicals Inc.,
Uniroyal Inc., Uniroyal Chemical Inc., Uniroyal Chemical Holding Co.,
Uniroyal Chemical Acquisition Corp., C.D.U. Holding Inc., Diamond Shamrock
Agricultural Chemicals Inc., Diamond Shamrock Chemicals, Diamond Shamrock
Chemicals Co., Diamond Shamrock Corp., Diamond Shamrock Refining and
Marketing Co., Occidental Electrochemicals Corp., Diamond Alkali Co.,
Ansul Inc., Hooker Chemical Corp., Hooker Chemical Far East Corp., Hooker
Chemicals & Plastics Corp., American Home Products Corp., Wyeth.,
Hoffman-Taff Chemicals Inc., Chemical Land Holdings Inc., T-H Agriculture
& Nutrition Co. Inc., Thompson Chemical Corp., Riverdale Chemical
Co., Elementis Chemicals Inc., United States Rubber Co. Inc., Syntex
Agribusiness Inc. and ABC Chemical Cos.