Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at the April 20 press conference that Monsanto Company needs to take bold measures to handle consequences as it sprayed Agent Orange/dioxin in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The statement was made shortly after the international tribunal blamed the global biotech giant for activities threatening people’s rights to food, health, and environment. On April 18, a panel of five outstanding judges from Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, and Senegal announced the conclusion after initial hearings took place on Oct 16-18, 2016 in the Netherlands. The conclusion, unbinding and having only legal advisory value, was based on evidences collected from 30 witnesses and experts from five continents over the past months. The tribunal worked on six questions, including one concerning Monsanto’s complicity in war crimes in the Vietnam War. In 1962–1973, over 70 million liters of Agent Orange (containing dioxin) was deposited on roughly 2.6 million hectares of land in Vietnam, which was blamed for severe health problems to its population later. However, the tribunal did not give a definitive response to this inquiry, only stating that Monsanto probably knew how its products would be used and had prior knowledge of the product’s health consequences. Monsanto appeared as the essential company among 37 defendants in a lawsuit which Vietnamese AO victims lodged in the U.S. in 2004 –2009. Monsanto has been operating in Vietnam since 1995 under the form of Monsanto Thailand’s representative office. In August 2010, Monsanto set up its office in Vietnam with the name of Dekalb Vietnam Company Limited, specializing in maize, vegetable seeds, and biotech. Since then, the company has continued expanding its business to sales of GM corn and herbicide. Vietnam has an estimated four million people suffer AO/dioxin-related consequences. Their symptoms are various, mainly birth defects. (www.mofa.gov.vn [1] April 20)
