Angry tears as MPs hear of Agent Orange's awful legacy

By MARTIN JOHNSTON

In Wayne Chester's mind, the sickly stink of diesel is forever connected to the destroyed jungles of Vietnam.

"I'll never forget the smell," the former soldier said yesterday after giving evidence on Agent Orange.

He told Parliament's health select committee he believed the toxic herbicide that showered him from aircraft while he fought the Vietnam War in 1968-69 had caused him and two of his three children numerous health problems.

The committee is investigating evidence that New Zealand military were exposed to defoliants, the risks for them and their families, and if they need further health services.

War veteran Bill McCoid, of Whangarei, said it was impossible to avoid the residue of dioxin-contaminated chemicals.

"It was everywhere. On the ground where we slept, on the vegetation - or what was standing - and even in the water we had to drink.

"I saw our own men spraying around our tent lines in Nui Dat base camp and the water which was delivered to us by tanker was drawn from a water point just outside the wire where spraying frequently occurred."

Mr McCoid now has skin cancers and an extensive skin rash.

Mr Chester, a 58-year-old company director from Helensville, listed the devastating effects on his family of what superiors in Vietnam had told him was "anti-malarial spray".

His 28-year-old daughter Rachael was born with a growth in her throat, was hyperactive, had cancer and suffers from migraines, a skin disorder, chemical reactions and agoraphobia, which caused panic attacks, kept her at home and prevented her from communicating with other people.

Fionna, Mr Chester's 30-year-old daughter, had a heart murmur, bowel and bladder dysfunction and endometriosis, a painful condition linked to the uterus. She suffered migraines from birth and a burst blood vessel in the brain when a teenager. She was now partially paralysed, could not use her left arm or hand, nor walk properly.

Mr Chester said his own legacy included diabetes, depression, liver disease ("I don't drink") and skin disorders.

Quizzed by MPs, he said that of 20 former Vietnam comrades he had spoken to at a reunion, five or six reported problems in their children.

He recalled US military promotion of Agent Orange as safe, but said that if he knew then how dangerous it was, "I would have mutinied".

Marrakech Jennings-Lowry, 20, the daughter of a veteran, wept as she told the committee of how the chemicals had ruined her life.

At least five of her organs were affected. She had had a hysterectomy, because of endometriosis, and needed a heart and lung transplant, which she said would have to be done overseas.

She was unable to work or study.

She said her husband earned $100 too much for her to receive financial help from Veterans' Affairs, yet she had to spend $300 a week on drugs and transport to medical visits.

"I'm sick of this. I want compensation," said Mrs Jennings-Lowry, who is preparing a law suit against the Government.

The Government pays for counselling and out-of-pocket medical bills of veterans' children, but it is restricted to certain conditions.

Witnesses canvassed by committee chairwoman Steve Chadwick about setting up a register of veterans and their families and the need for a Government apology indicated support for both.

Many were angry at Government-commissioned reports, one of which found no conclusive link between veterans' military service and their children's ill health; the other declaring there was no aerial spraying in Phuoc Tuy province where most New Zealanders were based.

Opposition MPs forced the inquiry's formation after a retired Army officer produced a map issued to him when serving there that showed the area was sprayed. In June, the Government admitted there had been spraying in Phuoc Tuy.

The wife of a veteran, Elizabeth Lancaster, the mother of two intellectually and physically impaired children, alleged that the Government-commissioned reports were attempts at a cover-up.

Vietnam Veterans Association president John Moller said one, the McLeod Review, was superficial and erroneous. The other, from an inquiry headed by former Governor-General Sir Paul Reeves, "was based in part on information which was biased, discredited and in some cases fraudulent". The hearing continues in Wellington today.

Spray weapon

* In the Vietnam War the US sprayed herbicides on jungle to deprive its enemies of cover.

* Agent Orange was the main defoliant, sprayed from planes and on the ground.

* It was a mix of the toxic dioxin-containing weedkillers 2,4,5, T and 2,4, D plus kerosene or diesel.

* Parliament's health committee is hearing from sprayed war veterans and their wives and children.

* Veterans say many of them are ill from the chemicals and their children suffer deformities and diseases.

* They are seeking further acknowledgement that New Zealanders were sprayed, and an apology.

* Some want compensation and a survey of veterans and their families.