Paris (VNA) - Significant attention hasbeen paid to a hearing on January 25 for a trial brought by Vietnamese-French womanTran To Nga against the US companies that provided the chemical toxins used by theUS Army in the war in Vietnam.

At the trial, held in the Crown Court of Evry cityin the suburbs of Paris, lawyers for the defendants spent more than four hours arguingfor their clients, which are 17 chemical producers from the US, including Monsanto(acquired by the German group Bayer in 2018) and Dow Chemical, while Nga’s threelawyers had only one and a half hours.

Lawyers William Bourdon, Amelie Lefebvre, and BertrandRepolt have stood side-by-side with Nga for more than 10 years.

In 2009, she testified for Agent Orange (AO)/dioxinvictims in Vietnam at the International People’s Tribunal of Conscience, in Paris.In 2013, the Crown Court of Evry accepted her lawsuit and one year later she receivednotice of the first procedural hearing, with 19 US chemical companies to stand trial.

The public in France has described the trial as“historic”, through which Nga and the organisations supporting the lawsuit hopeto promote international recognition of the “crime of environmental destruction”.

Lawyer Bourdon said the US chemical companieshave used every possible means not to prevent this trial - since they can’t - butto argue that Nga’s activities are unacceptable and groundless.

The defendants’ representatives claimed that theCrown Court of Evry doesn’t have sufficient capacity to deal with the case.

Lawyer Jean-Daniel Bretzner of Monsanto said thecompanies “acted in line with State orders and in the name of that State” and areentitled to judicial immunity.

Bourdon stressed that these arguments are outdated,and that Nga’s lawyers are relatively confident, as the law has developed towardsenhancing the responsibility of private entities, even when they declare they actedunder pressure from an administration.

Secretary-General of the France - Vietnam FriendshipAssociation Jean-Pierre Archambault considers the January 25 hearing an importantstride forward in the lawsuit Nga has pursued for more than six years to seek justicefor Vietnamese AO/dioxin victims.

He categorised the arguments presented by the lawyersdefending the US multinational companies as disgusting, noting they believe theiractions followed US Government orders and, hence, they do not bear any responsibilityfor producing the dangerous herbicides that are still tormenting millions of victimsin Vietnam even though the war ended decades ago. He also pledged support tothe struggle by Nga.

Marie Toussaint, a Greens member of the EuropeanParliament, expressed her discontent over the defendants’ lawyers providingincorrect arguments that Nga no longer has AO/dioxin in her blood.

The US companies tried everything possible to castoff their responsibility in AO production, Toussaint said, adding it is a historicalfact that in war, atomic weapons destroyed not only land and people at the timebut also severely impacted the following generations, and the same thing has happenedwith chemical toxins like AO/dioxin.

She affirmed that justice is needed to make peace,and no one has the right to produce hazardous chemicals that affect many generations,regardless of wartime or peacetime.

Voicing his support for Nga’s lawsuit, Mayor Jean-MarcDefremont of Savigny-sur-Orge city said the US chemical companies produced herbicidesthat seriously destroyed the environment in Vietnam but have yet to be subject toany punishment.

For her part, Nga said that although the court isscheduled to issue a verdict in May, for her, the struggle will continue.

“We will remain patient and persistent, as we havebeen for the last six years or more,” she affirmed.

Nga, born in 1942, filed the lawsuit in May 2014.With the support of several non-governmental organisations, she accused the companiesof causing lasting harm to the health of herself, her children, and countless others,and of destroying the environment.

She graduated from a Hanoi university in 1966 andbecame a war correspondent of the former Liberation News Agency, part of the VietnamNews Agency. She worked in some of the most heavily AO/dioxin affected areas insouthern Vietnam, such as Cu Chi, Ben Cat, and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, ultimatelyexperiencing contamination herself.

Of her three children, the first died of heart defectsand the second suffers from a blood disease. She has also contracted a number ofacute diseases

On April 16, 2015, the Crown Court of Evry city heldthe first hearing on the case, but since then, lawyers for the chemical companieshave tried every way to draw out procedures.

The trial was scheduled to open in October 2020 butwas postponed due to COVID-19./.