According to Tran Xuan Thu, vice president of the Vietnam Association for the Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin Victims (VAVA), on March 22, Vietnamese plaintiffs in the lawsuit will send their reply to the US defendants’ questions to the US Court of Appeal, which will set a date for the first proceedings.

Meanwhile, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) expressed their profound sympathy with Vietnamese AO victims for their suffering and voiced strong support for their current lawsuit against US chemical companies. 

Meeting in Hanoi from February 21-22, the association held that Vietnamese AO victims must receive compensation from the US chemical companies which supplied defoliants for US troops to spray over Vietnamese land and forests during the war.

Vietnamese AO victims will win the lawsuit thanks to their practical evidence and strong international support, said Jitendra Sharma, an IADL representative. He said more than 1,500 lawyers from 96 countries, who attended a conference in June 2005, passed a resolution supporting the Vietnamese AO victims’ lawsuit.

He said that IADL will discuss the lawsuit at a meeting of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to be held in Geneva in March 2006. The association has pledged that it will also raise the issue for discussion at any meeting of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. It proposed that Vietnam launch further dissemination campaigns around the world to build more international support for the lawsuit. 

During their stay in Vietnam, international lawyers met with Vietnamese AO victims to gather further information about their arguments.