Battle for justice for vietnam veterans (+pics)

Vietnam is the war that will never end.

Those were the words of Tai Tokerau Bishop Ben Te Haara during a memorial service at Waitangi on Sunday, quoting from a book about the legacy of Agent Orange, the herbicide dropped by the tonne to destroy jungle during the Vietnam War.

Bishop Te Haara wasn't talking about armed combat but about the veterans' battle against ill health - and to prove their illnesses are caused by exposure to Agent Orange.

Bill Subrizsky was one of 330 veterans at the Bay of Islands last weekend for the 15th Ex-Vietnam Services Association reunion. He remembers being sprayed with Agent Orange and blames his poor health on the herbicide.

His nine-month tour of duty in 1966 included a stint in Nui Dat, an area of forest and rubber plantations.

"We'd be sitting there having our dinner and the spray would be dropping into our food, in our water, on our clothes. Our uniforms used to rot off us. After a few days you'd look out of your tent and there wasn't a leaf on the trees or a blade of grass for miles. That was what it was meant to do, but we didn't know what it was doing to us."

When he got home he "lost the plot", started drinking heavily, and separated from his wife. Twelve years later he became ill, with problems including cancer, diabetes, arthritis and hypertension. He has undergone radiotherapy and had a testicle removed.

"At one stage I was given 18 months to live. That was 18 years ago."

It was only years later that the psychological effects of war were officially recognised; Mr Subrizsky was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder 30 years after his return.

He is convinced his physical ailments are caused by Agent Orange and is backed by his GP, but not by ACC or the Ministry for Veterans' Affairs.

Russell veteran Ross Miller, MC at the memorial service, said the psychological fallout became evident first. One veteran lived under a bridge for six months "because he couldn't face the world"; others woke screaming or sought comfort in the bottle.

Before long they were dying before their time or their babies were born with deformities.

Mr Miller said the first Government inquiry was based on the lie that Agent Orange was not used in areas where New Zealand troops were based; the second was a farce. "In 2003 the lies were exposed when an old map found in the bottom of a trunk blew the whole matter wide open," he said.

A memorandum of understanding signed in 2006 between the Government, the Ex-Vietnam Services Association and the RSA had started to address the injustices, but the battle was not over. An upcoming rewrite of the War Pensions Act could be the next point of contention, he said.

Reunion organising committee chair Rihari (Dick) Dargaville of Paihia said there were still many questions to be answered about Agent Orange and premature deaths among veterans.

"We had 37 killed in action but since then we've lost 50 per cent. What the hell's killing them? These are the fittest men on Earth," he said.