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THAI NGO DEMANDS U.S. ACTION ON AGENT ORANGE

Kyodo News Agency

BANGKOK, Thailand, 14 July, 1999 -- A group of 22 Thai nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok on Wednesday to demand the United States take responsibility for the defoliant known as Agent Orange found buried at a southern Thai airport March 19. The U.S. military and government should take the contaminated soil from the Bor Fai airport back to the United States, said a statement issued by the 22 NGOs and submitted to the embassy. The statement called on the U.S. to provide funds and technical assistance to Thailand to clean up the environment in the southern resort Hua Hin. Thai authorities indicated the substance found buried under the taxiway at Bor Fai airport contains derivatives of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate and 2,4,5- trichlorophenoryacetate -- two substances in Agent Orange.

Agent Orange was used during the Vietnam War more than 30 years ago to denude trees to prevent them from being used as cover by Vietnamese guerrillas. The chemical substances in Agent Orange can cause cancer, according to Thailand's Department of Medical Science.

An NGO worker said the U.S. has to take responsibility for the toxic substance since it was the U.S. military that conducted research and experiments on the defoliant between 1964 and 1965 in Thailand's Prachuabkhirikhan province where Bor Fai airport is located. The airport was used as a base for deforestation experiments in the Pranburi district of the province.

An embassy spokesman said the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has provided technical assistance to the Pollution Control Department of Thailand. An EPA test recently showed the substance found at the airport contains relatively a low level of dioxin, which has no impact on the environment or the people living near airport or in nearby areas, the spokesman added. Thailand has asked the U.S. to provide about 17 million baht (460,000 dollars) to treat the contamination at the airport, an official at the Pollution Control Department said.

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