杏吧原创

THE British government acted illegally and dishonestly towards veterans
of the atomic bomb tests in the Pacific, the European Commission of Human Rights
concluded last week. The commission found the government guilty of violating
veterans鈥� rights to a fair hearing to their claims for compensation for
illnesses they have suffered since being exposed to radiation on Christmas
Island almost forty years ago. It has referred the veterans鈥� claims to the
European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The court will hear the case in
the next 18 months.

鈥淭his is a dramatic vindication of our decades-long struggle for justice
against a massive government cover-up,鈥� says Ken McGinley, chairman of the
British Nuclear Tests Veterans Association. 鈥淎tonement may now be at hand for
one of the last major atrocities of the Cold War.鈥� For the past ten years the
Ministry of Defence (MoD) has refused to award compensation to test veterans who
have since contracted cancer.

The commission, which consists of 26 judges and lawyers from the 40 countries
that belong to the Council of Europe, concludes in a detailed report that the
British government breached articles 6 and 8 of the European Convention on Human
Rights. Article 6 states that 鈥渆veryone is entitled to a fair and public
hearing鈥� and article 8 says that 鈥渆veryone has the right to respect for his
private life鈥�. The report argues that the government has deprived veterans of
information about radiation levels vital to challenging the MoD鈥檚 refusal of
compensation.

Last year, the commission asked the British government about the original
records of radiation levels on Christmas Island after the nuclear explosions.
The government replied that 鈥渋nformation from such records鈥� was summarised in a
report by the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston published in 1993.

The commission accuses the government of 鈥渓acking in candour鈥� and concludes
that the original records have been withheld for reasons of national security.
The report points out that the veterans had extreme difficulties discovering
which records existed, which had been destroyed, which had been lost and which
had been withheld. 鈥淚n such circumstances, the commission considers it
justifiable to view the public records system as, for all practical purposes,
inaccessible,鈥� it says.

The commission says that government memoranda from the 1950s and the fact
that the veterans were made to line up on the beach at Christmas Island when the
explosions took place give it 鈥渁 basis for reasonable anxiety and concern鈥�.

The government鈥檚 contention that the veterans were not exposed to radiation
as part of a scientific experiment is also described by the commission as
鈥涡苍肠辞苍惫颈苍肠颈苍驳鈥�.

Two studies commissioned by the MoD in 1988 and 1993 claimed that test
veterans had suffered no detectable increases in their risk of contracting
cancer, although these studies have been criticised by the veterans and by a US
advisory committee consisting of 14 leading experts in radiation and health.

The commission argues that the veterans should be compensated. It points out
that the US government has paid out more than $25 million to 676 people
from the Marshall Islands, who were farther away from smaller nuclear tests than
British veterans. The British government has also paid 拢20 million to
people exposed to atomic tests in Australia.