French law firm affirms support for Vietnamese AO victim's lawsuit
The France-based Bourdon & Associates law firm affirmed its support for Vietnamese-French Tran To Nga in her lawsuit against multinational chemical companies after the Crown Court of Evry City ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to hear her case on May 10.
Stern newspaper runs article on Tran To Nga's historic lawsuit (Photo: VNA)
Paris (VNA) – The France-based Bourdon & Associates lawfirm affirmed its support for Vietnamese-French Tran To Nga in her lawsuitagainst multinational chemical companies after the Crown Court of Evry Cityruled that it did not have jurisdiction to hear her case on May 10.
In their announcement issued right after the Evry court’s ruling, lawyers WilliamBourdon, Amélie Lefebvre và Bertrand Repolt, who have supported Nga for morethan 10 years, affirmed that the court was applying an obsolete definition ofthe immunity of jurisdiction principle which contradicted modern principles ofinternational and national law.
They said they were surprised as the court recognised that the companiesconcerned had acted under the constraint of the then US government whereas theyanswered to a call for tenders, which they were free to do or not.
More seriously, the US government at that time did not force the production ofproducts containing a high dioxin concentration such as Agent Orange. This onlycame from the policy of the chemical companies themselves, the lawyers said.
Nga, 79,accuses 14 multinational chemical companies, including herbicide manufacturerMonsanto (now under the Bayer Group of Germany), of supplying the herbicide anddefoliant chemical - Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin, which was used extensively bythe US army between 1961-1971 in Vietnam, causing serious consequences for 4million people and severely poisoning the environment.
The woman, also an AO victim, haspursued the lawsuit for over a decade, including six years in court.
During 1961-1971, the US troops sprayed 80 million liters of herbicides and defoliants, 46 liters of which were Agent Orange produced by many companies./.
An exhibition highlighting the pain of Vietnamese Agent Orange/dioxin victims and the lawsuit filed by Tran To Nga, a Vietnamese French woman, against multinational companies for producing and selling chemical toxins sprayed by US forces in the war in Vietnam, is being held in Ho Chi Minh City from May 8-13.
Participants in a May 8 roundtable talk, including Vietnamese-French woman Tran To Nga, who is pursuing a lawsuit against the US companies that provided the chemical toxins used by the US army during the war in Vietnam, affirmed the resolve to continue the fight for justice for Agent Orange (AO)/ dioxin victims of Vietnam regardless of the court’s rulings.
Germany’s Frankfurter Rundschau (FR) newspaper on May 9 ran an article highlighting a lawsuit by Vietnamese-French Tran To Nga over multinational companies which produced and sold the toxic chemical Agent Orange (AO) containing dioxin sprayed by US forces during the war in Vietnam.
Vietnamese-French woman Tran To Nga affirmed she will continue her lawsuit against multinational companies for producing and selling chemical toxins sprayed by US forces during the war in Vietnam after the Crown Court of Evry City ruled that it was not competent enough to hear her case.
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Stern newspaper runs article on Tran To Nga's historic lawsuit (Photo: VNA) 
