Victory for Australian soldiers used as nuclear guinea pigs

THOUSANDS of Australian troops were used as guinea pigs during British nuclear testing in the SA desert 50 years ago, a London court has ruled.

Celebrations ... Tony Roberts, Alan Ilegg and Donald James (in beret) on the steps of the High Court, London / Pic Charles Miranda

THOUSANDS of Australian troops were used as guinea pigs during British nuclear testing in the SA desert 50 years ago a court ruled yesterday.

The High Court in London made a landmark decision which has opened the way for Australian service men and their families to sue the British Government for the injury and suffering they endured as a result of the tests.

The bombshell decision found the British Ministry of Defence did have a case to answer that it unfairly exposed servicemen from Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Fiji to atomic fallout during the series of tests in South Australia, Western Australia and off the eastern coast on atolls in the Pacific.

The sensational ruling was greeted with cheers from many veterans in Room 73 of the London Royal Courts of Justice where for five years 1000 of them have fought to prove they and their families had suffered because of radioactive exposure.

Outside on the steps of the court house, about two dozen veterans and their families celebrating the finding in a shower of champagne.

Fireman Tony Roberts said it was his father's dying wish that he seek justice.

"All you've got to do is see it through to the end' was what he said to me,"Mr Roberts said of his father John who died three years ago from a range of illneses he had suffered since returning from the RAF.

The case paves the way for millions of dollars in compensation to now be offered to the servicemen exposed on land, air and sea who were directed into mushroom clouds to test the effects of the weaponry on the human body.

The Australian Federal Government had stalled for years on whether to pay compensation, citing it was awaiting for a ruling to be made by the British High Court since the tests were done by the British Government.

Justice David Foskett now urged the Ministry of Defence to use their discretion and mediate with the thousands of veterans to organise appropriate compensation. He said the turning point in the case for his ruling was a 2006 New Zealand study that found "chromisonal aborrations" in veterans exposed.

In earlier hearings, the court heard the British Government and military administration actively withheld details of the dangers of atomic testing in the Pacific not only from the 25,000 servicemen who took part but also the Australian Government of the day.

The military men were promised "the greatest show on earth" but instead were exposed to serious levels of radiation that years later would kill many from a series of illnesses; many close to the drop zone also saw their children and their children's children suffer genetic defects.

The British atomic testers ordered military aircraft and ships to pass close to the mushroom clouds, while on land, soldiers stood close to the drop zone with little more than their uniforms.

Tests on their bodies later showed they had been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation but the effects were not known or at least understood.

Mr Foskett said it was likely radiation poisoning was not just suffered from those exposed but others who ate the fruit, fish and other materials in the fallout zone particularly in the Pacific.

"On the evidence before me, I find there is a case that would need answering about the extent to which there was true protection against alpha and beta radiation, in particular from the inhalation and ingestion of fallout or fall out contaminated material," Justice Foskett concluded.

He said despite the lapse of 50 years, there was so much evidence totalling into the hundreds of thousands of pages that should individuals now sue the government, they had a chance before a jury to succeed.