A photo exhibition entitled “The Effects of Agent Orange - Conscience and Justice”, will take place at the Museum of Da Nang, 24 Tran Phu Street, between 23 July and 12 August.  The event is part of the celebrations for the 52^th anniversary of the AO/dioxin disaster in Viet Nam, the 10^th founding anniversary of the Viet Nam Association of AO Victims (10 January), and the Day for AO Victims (10 August).

The event is expected to become an annual event which will be expanded into other cities and provinces nationwide.

The exhibition will feature hundreds of photos and precious artifacts, which have all been provided by individuals and organisations across the country.

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake meeting with local AO-affected children (Source: Vietnamplus)

Most notably, the Ha Noi Chemical Army Museum has supplied about 200 photos and artifacts for the exhibition.  The Director of the museum, Mr Doan Quoc Hung, said that it took his museum about 2 months to collect the photos and artifacts.  He added that many of the photos were donated by foreign photographers.  He said he hoped that visitors to the exhibition would get a comprehensive view of the impacts that the Agent Orange chemical warfare had, and still has, on the lives of Vietnamese people, as well as collectively sharing the pain with the AO victims.

On display at the event will be photos which won many prestigious prizes in domestic and foreign photographic competitions.  They include photographer Kieu Tan’s photo entitled “Overcoming Fate” which won a special prize at the 2012 Polish Photography Competition, and a photo by Vu Hung entitled “Pham The Minh - a Typical Example” which won the 2010 Excellent Photography Award.

8 artifacts will be lent by the city’s Military Zone 5 branch of the Ho Chi Minh Museum for display at the exhibition.  They are a napalm war head, 2 Camplu 24B/B bombs, 2 85-grain steel piercing bullets, 2 CSM25 A2 grenades, and 1 dynamite tube.  The Deputy Director of the military museum, Captain Than Ngoc Hue, said that all the US-made weapons had contained toxic chemicals in use during the war years, and they are considered as living witnesses of the dioxin disaster.

In addition, there will be a souvenir stand selling handmade products made by local AO victims.