Agent Orange trial: agrochemical giants deny any form of responsibility
A sign warns of the contamination of land by Agent Orange near Danang airport in Vietnam in 2012. AP - Maika Elan
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The hearing of the trial of Agent Orange, this poison used by the American army in Vietnam, opened in Évry on Monday.
Franco-Vietnamese Tran To Gna, which has filed a complaint against the makers of Agent Orange, and multinational agrochemicals clash in an ethical battle against legal coldness.
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His lawyers wanted to make it a symbol.
To agree with Tran To Gna against the multinational agrochemicals, that would be making history, launched Master William Bourdon to the judges of the court of Évry.
“
Times have changed.
You must put an end to the culture of impunity, that you recognize
the ecocide caused by Agent Orange
”, hammered the lawyer.
In other words, the irreparable destruction of the environment but also the devastation that has affected millions of Vietnamese.
On the bench opposite, the representatives of Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Hercules… these companies which supplied their chemicals to the American army from 1960, answer point by point.
At the time, nobody knew the very high toxicity of these products, they were authorized on the domestic market and the precautionary principle did not exist, say these agrochemical giants.
These companies do not consider themselves responsible in any case, because according to her, the order to use Agent Orange in Vietnam came from above and was signed by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in person.
They believe they have only obeyed the imperative demands of the US government.
► To read also: France: the historic trial of Agent Orange
The French magistrates who inherit this burning file should give themselves several weeks to render their decision.
If they ever decided to follow up on Tran To Gan's complaint, it would be an unprecedented legal advance in favor of the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.
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