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France: compensation for n-test victims

Paris: They often wore only Army-regulation shorts and T-shirts to protect them from atomic explosions, and were stationed dangerously close to mushroom clouds or hosed-down contaminated equipment wearing just swimming trunks. The soldiers and civilians who worked on France’s notorious nuclear tests in the Sahara Desert and south Pacific have long fought for compensation for the cancer and long-term health effects they blame on the state’s failure to protect them.

But for years, France resisted, fighting veterans in the courts and building a wall of silence around the dangers of the controlled explosions. On Wednesday, the French Defence Minister finally broke the taboo, saying a law would be introduced in January to compensate those suffering illnesses among the 1,50,000 Army and civilians who worked on the tests in Algeria and French-owned Polynesian atolls. Herve Morin said France would draw up a list of health problems that could be linked to radiation exposure over the course of 210 tests from 1960 to 1996. He admitted France lagged behind countries such as the U.S. in failing to acknowledge long-term health effects, saying: “Today, we must recognise these victims.”

“We were guinea pigs who have had no proper medical support,” said Michel Verger, president of the veterans’ pressure group, Aven. The group, which has about 3,000 members, surveyed more than 1,000 veterans and found 35 per cent had one or two cancers and one in five were infertile. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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