The government of Vietnam has decided to let bygones be bygones and do business with Monsanto - even before it cleans up and compensates for its Agent Orange used against civilians during the Vietnam War.
According to a Truthout Op-Ed by Vietnamese journalist Dien Luong, Monsanto “has been quietly welcomed back into Vietnam to cultivate genetically modified animal feed, even as it has continued to refuse to compensate its Vietnamese victims."
Luong says Vietnamese officials, eager to remove trade barriers, are capitalizing on the fact that most of its population was born after the war and not personally familiar with its atrocities. The reasoning is that if the country wouldn’t refuse to do business with Boeing, which made the planes that dropped bombs on the country, it shouldn't limit Monsanto.
However, adds Luong, Monsanto, not Boeing, has been ordered to pay compensation for its wartime products, and it has left several contaminated Agent Orange “hotspots” across Vietnam.
Luong cites a number of other reasons, obvious to those who know the company’s reputation, why Vietnam should reject Monsanto’s token, “paltry” $70,000 in university scholarships used to buy its way into the country’s graces, then adds that the least it can do is pay for the harm done to civilians and the environment.
Sign this petition to insist that Monsanto pay for the Agent Orange clean-up in Vietnam and properly compensate war victims before being allowed to do business in the country.
To the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development:
As the spouse of a deceased victim of Agent Orange exposure while serving in the US Army in Vietman, I am personally aware of the destruction to my family by this poisoning and the need for compensation for our loss. Because so much more is due to the victims living in Vietnam and still feeling the effects of that senseless poisoning, I am writing to insist that, at the very least, Monsanto be made to clean up the Agent Orange contamination and properly compensate all Vietnamese civilians before it is allowed to do business in the country.
[YOUR COMMENTS]
[YOUR NAME]
