Compensation claims turn nuclear
With the recent discovery of a general’s journal documenting the nuclear testing and its effects on the service men, it has been able to give a voice to all the sufferers who experienced diseases such as cancer and skin
personal injuries.
Their revenge for their lifelong pain was to file a compensation claim against the MoD and the government, who have continually denied any knowledge of the nuclear testing disease.
However, the time has now come for the government to compensate the veterans for the damage they say they suffered from atomic fallout in the 1950’s.
Compensation claims come in its forces
Around 1,000 veterans from all three armed services are claiming hundreds of millions of pounds in damages for injuries ranging from cancer, skin conditions and death.
The High Court claims link to bomb testing in mainland Australia and the Pacific by the Ministry of Defence at the height of the Cold War in the 1950’s.
However, the Ministry of Defence last week began an attempt to hinder the compensation cases, claiming it is now too late to launch personal injury actions.
The MoD says it is protected by the Limitation Act 1980, which states a time limit for veterans to launch their claims after becoming aware they had a valid case.
But Benjamin Browne QC, a top barrister who is representing the veterans noted that only recently has the information become available to proceed with the claims.
Browne showed the court that research from New Zealand revealed that even sailors operating far away from the test areas still suffered ill effects due to the fallout.
Browne said in a lengthy speech: “The study, therefore, also proves that most, if not all, of this group of claimants themselves suffered genetic effects due to radiation exposure. Time and again, governments have said that the veterans must wait for compensation, since science does not establish a link. Yet, when that science does finally become available, the MOD now says that all these claims are far too late.”
Browne said that the time delay should not matter: “The claimants maintain that it was only with this new knowledge that they had the information that enabled them to proceed so that their claims are not time-barred, and that it would be just in the circumstances to allow this claim to proceed.”
Lawyers for the veterans say they suffered personal injuries of all types, ranging from skin conditions, cancers of the liver, intestine and lungs and even death.
The trail of illness goes on
Some even argue that the effects were passed on to the men’s families and thousands of their children. Douglas Hern, litigation secretary said how he and his comrades were used as “guinea pigs” by the military.
George Armstrong, now 72, returned to his wife bald, the first in four generations of his family to do so. Armstrong said: “My wife didn't recognise me when I came back from the island. I was a marksman when I went out – and I couldn't see a football when I came back.”
Updated on 26/01/2009