Agent Orange walkers reach Hanoi after two months on road

Jun 2, 2008, 11:12 GMT

Hanoi - A group of nine Americans, Australians and Vietnamese who walked the length of Vietnam to raise funds for victims of Agent Orange were welcomed to Hanoi Monday after having trudged 1,700 kilometers.

The walkers, who started out April 5 from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, raised about 10,000 dollars to distribute to Vietnamese disabled by exposure to Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant the US military sprayed on Vietnamese jungles during the Vietnam War.

'The walk is to let the world know that there is Agent Orange, and that it is killing people,' said Bernie Duff, an American artist living in Ho Chi Minh City who came up with the idea together with his Vietnamese girlfriend, Bui Thi Bao Anh.

Dressed in orange T-shirts and shorts, the group walked every day along Vietnam's main Highway 1. As articles were printed on them in local media, they began to receive greetings and offers of help from passers-by.

'We got a lot of thumbs-up and lots of smiles and recognition,' said American Bob Schuessler, 62. 'By the end of the walk, some of the highest people in the government and the [Communist] Party were having us out for dinner.'

Duff, 58, served as a US Army medic in Vietnam in 1969 and said he came into frequent contact with Agent Orange. He attributed a later bout of skin cancer to exposure to the defoliant.

Scientific studies have indicated that exposure to dioxin, the toxin in Agent Orange, is associated with higher rates of certain kinds of cancers, liver and nervous system diseases, and genetic damage.

Surveys in Vietnam have found that dioxin from Agent Orange has largely disappeared from the environment but persists in heavily exposed 'hot spots' and in certain parts of the food chain, such as the fatty tissue in ducks.

Vietnam's government said millions of Vietnamese suffer disabilities and disease because of Agent Orange exposure, but the US government and many experts said those numbers are exaggerated, and that it is almost impossible to trace any individual case to Agent Orange.

'A lot of people are unaware that Agent Orange is still a problem,' Schuessler said. 'They remember it was something bad we did during the war, but when they learn that it's still going on, most people are quite surprised.'

The group met with the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin in Hanoi Monday.

'Our Agent Orange victims not only need material help but also very much moral help, spiritual help,' association official Nguyen Minh Y said.

Y said that in some cases, Vietnamese disabled from dioxin exposure are looked down upon by neighbors who hold the traditional Buddhist belief that their suffering is punishment for bad deeds in past lives.

The chemical companies that manufactured Agent Orange have paid about 195 million dollars in damages to more than 50,000 American veterans exposed to Agent Orange, but no Vietnamese has ever been compensated by the companies or the US government. A lawsuit filed by Vietnamese against the chemical companies was dismissed by a US appeals court in February.

Schuessler said the walkers plans to repeat their effort on a larger scale next year.

'At the beginning, we were worried that the police might give us trouble because we didn't really have all the papers we needed,' he said. 'I think once they found out our purpose was not something political, the support grew, and I think for next year's walk, we have no concern at all.'