Veterans' families beg Clinton's help

By Mathew Dearnaley

Children of Vietnam War veterans appealed to United States President Bill Clinton yesterday to lean on his New Zealand Government hosts for action over their illnesses.

They abandoned plans to lay a wreath at the Auckland War Memorial Museum cenotaph after learning of the massive Apec security operation there, but faxed a letter to the President instead.

A spokeswoman, Katrina Piggott, who fears her father died of Agent Orange poisoning, told Mr Clinton in the letter that the Government had turned its back on veterans' families.

She begged for his support, given the high exposure of his own country's forces to chemical defoliants dumped on Vietnam.

Veterans' children, many of whom report congenital illnesses, are upset the Government has yet to act on recommendations three months ago by a committee of inquiry into chemical exposure in Vietnam and radiation from British nuclear tests in the Pacific.

A five-member team chaired by the former Governor-General Sir Paul Reeves said the new Office of Veterans Affairs should pay for case management and counselling of sick children while medical specialists are lined up to examine them.

A United States Embassy spokesman said the letter had been referred to officials with the US delegation to the Apec summit.