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Mr Len Aldis, Britain-Vietnam
Friendship Society Secretary, has recently sent an open letter
to Monsanto's president and Chief Excutive Officer,asking
him to accept his responsibility for the manufacture of
Agent Orangeand its use on Vietnam, and make financial
compensation to the victims, and their families.
3.....33..OPEN LETTER TO MONSANTO
Mr Hugh Grant. President and Chief
Executive Officer
Monsanto.
800 North Lindbergh Boulevard
St Louis. USA
Dear Mr Grant,
 In 1961, three years after you were born,
U.S. forces began their ten-year use of Agent Orange in
South Vietnam. Over those years Eighty Million litres of the
chemical was sprayed destroying forests, poisoning the
rivers, lakes and the land. An even greater crime was the
many thousands of Vietnamese people that died from the
chemical and the hundreds of thousands that were crippled.
1981, six years after the American War on
Vietnam ended; you joined the company that, along with
others, was responsible for the manufacture of Agent Orange.
Today in Vietnam there are 3.5 million people from new born
babies to veterans suffering from the effects of the
chemical your company made. Not to forget the many U.S.
veterans also affected, like the Vietnamese many have died
and are dying.
You were Mr Grant, at the time you joined
Monsanto, fully aware of the effects that Agent Orange had
had, you certainly knew when you became the company’s
president and its chief executive. Yet Mr Grant you failed
to take any steps to alleviate the consequences of
Monsanto’s manufacture of Agent Orange. Indeed, not one word
of regret to the Vietnamese victims has come from your lips
despite facing lawsuit after lawsuit by victims from
Vietnam, U.S. and South Korea.
Monsanto is, as you well know, the
leading company involved with Genetic Modified (GM) crops.
Your company has gone from creating one poison to another,
both have and are still killing many thousands of people.
Where does it end Mr Grant?
How can you live with the knowledge that
you, and Monsanto through the use of Agent Orange and GM
seeds etc are responsible for the deaths and physically
crippling millions of people in the countries that your
products were used and are sold?
I regret that here in my country Monsanto
has also left a legacy, by its disposal of tonnes of
chemical waste in a number of municipal sites. A particular
site, Brofiscin Quarry in Wales, is causing acute concern by
your chemical waste leaking into the water supply and into
the atmosphere. Farmers nearby have reported abnormal births
among their animals. Despite questions to government
ministers it would appear that they, like Monsanto, are not
concerned.
In August a junior minister Phil Woolas,
MP from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (DEFRA), on the instructions of the Prime Minister,
met with a group of companies that included Monsanto, Dow
Chemical (one of your partners in the Agent Orange crime) to
discuss introducing GM crops in the UK. This meeting and
proposed policy has met with great hostility from people and
organisations anxious about our food being poisoned by
genetic engineering.
Thankfully, people here and in other
countries are becoming more aware of the products of
Monsanto and the danger they hold for the people. They are
also becoming aware of the lawsuit brought by the Vietnamese
people against your company and others in the U.S. Courts,
and know that documents are being prepared to be placed
before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking Justice for the crimes
that Monsanto, Dow Chemical etc committed on the Vietnamese
people.
Mr Grant, there is still time for you and
your company to make amends for these crimes. Accept your
responsibility for the manufacture of Agent Orange and its
use on Vietnam. Make financial compensation to the victims,
and their families. For many thousands of Vietnamese it is
too late, they have died, their suffering is at an end, but
for the present 3.5 million, their suffering continues.
Yours sincerely
Len Aldis
Secretary: Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society |
