Illustration of the Bayer group, which bought Monsanto.

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AFP

More than a dozen agrochemical companies, including Bayer-Monsanto, are due to appear on Monday before the court in Evry after the complaint of a Franco-Vietnamese woman who considers herself a victim of "Agent Orange", a Ultratoxic herbicide spilled on forests during the Vietnam War.

Born in 1942 in French Indochina, Tran To Nga was engaged during the conflict in the North camp.

To prevent the progression of the communist guerrilla war against the South, the American army spread, between 1961 and 1971, millions of liters of a very toxic defoliant containing "Agent Orange" on Vietnamese forests and Laotians.

A crime of "ecocide" according to Tran To Nga

This dioxin has an “absolutely phenomenal” toxic power, 13 times greater than civilian herbicides such as glyphosate for example, recalls Valérie Cabanes, a lawyer in international law.

"Agent orange" destroys vegetation, pollutes the soil, poisons plants and animals.

The health consequences on the population (cancer, malformations) are still being felt today.

Supported by numerous associations, Tran To Nga filed a complaint in 2014 against 14 companies that had manufactured or marketed this chemical compound, including Monsanto (acquired in 2018 by the German Bayer) and the American manufacturer Dow Chemical.

Through this "historic" trial Monday in the court of Evry (Essonne), the septuagenarian intends to participate in the international recognition of the crime of "ecocide".

Four million people have been exposed to "Agent Orange" in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, say NGOs defending the victims.

"The recognition of Vietnamese civilian victims will create a legal precedent" if the responsibility of multinationals is established, says Valérie Cabanes.

Indeed, only American, Australian and Korean veterans who fought in Vietnam were compensated during trials between 1987 and 2013.

A "family extermination"

If "research is still underway" to determine his physical harm, Tran To Nga explains that he suffers from pathologies "characteristic" of exposure to "Agent Orange", such as type 2 diabetes with an allergy to insulin. "Extremely rare".

She also contracted two tuberculosis, was diagnosed with cancer and one of her daughters died of a heart defect.

“It is not for myself that I am fighting,” says Tran To Nga, but “for my children” and “these millions of victims”.

The health consequences of this carcinogenic and teratogenic dioxin, which attacks the immune system, are transmitted to subsequent generations, which constitutes a real "family extermination", judge Tran To Nga.

About “6,000 children are born in Vietnam with congenital malformations” per year, adds Valérie Cabanes.

Solicited, Bayer explains that "Agent Orange" had "been manufactured under the sole direction of the US government for exclusively military purposes."

Having "established the conditions for its manufacture and determined when, where and how it was used, (the US government) is responsible, and not the wartime suppliers, for its use," adds the multinational.

The complainant and her counsel argue, on the contrary, that the American state was duped by these firms on the toxicity of "Agent Orange".

The pleadings of the different parties will be held Monday at the court of Evry, south of Paris.

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  • War

  • Vietnam

  • Court

  • Monsanto

  • Justice

  • Trial

  • Pesticides

  • Evry