Tue Apr 7, 12:07 PM
HANOI (AFP) - US wartime use of the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam remains an issue between the two countries despite remarkable progress in relations, Senator John McCain said Tuesday.
"I think it remains an issue both in Vietnam and the United States," McCain told reporters.
The US military used Agent Orange, named after its orange-striped containers, to defoliate areas believed to be harbouring opposing forces during the war which ended in 1975 with Vietnam's reunification.
It contained dioxin, a chemical linked to a variety of diseases and which Vietnam has blamed for a spate of birth deformities.
McCain said the United States has spent about 46 million dollars in Vietnam compensating victims and attempting to find areas that are contaminated by dioxin.
"But I believe that it remains an irritant, and perhaps more than that, for some of the people of Vietnam. But I think we need to continue to address the issue both in compensation of victims as well as cleanup of areas that are clearly contaminated," said McCain, a former navy pilot who was shot down over Hanoi in 1967 and held prisoner for five-and-a-half years during the Vietnam War.
Vietnamese who say they are victims of the toxin want the US to compensate them for its wartime "mistake," and vow to press their claim despite a US Supreme Court decision in March.
The top court declined to hear the victims' appeal after a US district court in 2005 dismissed their lawsuit against manufacturers of Agent Orange and other herbicides.
Vietnam and the US normalised diplomatic relations in 1995.
Close to three million people are victims of about 80 million litres (21 million gallons) of herbicides, much of it Agent Orange, sprayed by the US military over southern Vietnam during a 10-year period, according to a Vietnamese victims' group.
But there has been no internationally-accepted scientific study establishing a link between Agent Orange and Vietnam's disabled and deformed, a US embassy spokeswoman in Hanoi said earlier.
McCain and two other US senators are on an Asian tour and were to leave Vietnam for Beijing on Wednesday.
