(VOVworld) – On Wednesday, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/ Dioxin held a meeting to mark the 55th anniversary of the Agent Orange/ Dioxin catastrophe in Vietnam.
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Over the past year, the Party and State have promulgated a number of policies to deal with the effects of Agent Orange/ dioxin. Each year, the State allocates some 450 million USD for healthcare, functional rehabilitation of AO/ dioxin victims, and the cleanup of toxic areas. Activities to assist AO victims and a number of projects to deal with environmental pollution due to Agent Orange/ dioxin have involved the participation of the Politburo and the people. President Tran Dai Quang said: “Ministries, sectors and agencies need to mobilize efforts to deal with the aftermath of AO/ dioxin. We need to make people, especially overseas Vietnamese and the world community aware of the AO/ dioxin catastrophe in Vietnam. Ministries, sectors, agencies, and localities should actively respond to movements to support Vietnamese AO/ Dioxin victims, upgrade healthcare facilities, decontaminate the worst areas, and look after and provide vocational training to AO/ dioxin victims”.
President Quang said overcoming the AO/ dioxin impact on human health and the environment is an urgent and long-term task, and the shared responsibility of the Politburo and the people. Susan Schnall, President of the Association of Veterans for Peace in New York, spoke at the event: “It was our government. It was our Corporations. It was our factories that produced weapons of war. It was our military that dropped bombs, and sprayed poisons over a land and people that would last for generations. I come before you today as a Vietnam Era veteran of the American war in Vietnam to recognize and take responsibility for my government’s use of Agent Orange/ dioxin on your people and your land”.
President Tran Dai Quang presented the first-class Labor Order to the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/ Dioxin for their great effort in helping AO/ dioxin victims integrate into the community.