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N. Zealand atomic test veterans plan to sue British gov't
Index:
N. Zealand atomic test veterans plan to sue British gov't
US set to ease benefit rules for 'atomic' veterans
Antinuclear groups begin conferences in Nagasaki
Hiroshima filmmaker records 33 years with A-bomb victim wife
Two held after swimming into UK nuclear sub base
========================================
N. Zealand atomic test veterans plan to sue British gov't
SYDNEY, Aug. 6 (Kyodo) - New Zealand servicemen who witnessed British
nuclear tests in the 1950s in the Pacific said Monday they are
planning to sue the British government for compensation.
Roy Sefton, chairman of the New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans
Association, said 551 navy personnel served on two New Zealand
frigates during Britain's hydrogen bomb testing program, Operation
Grapple, from 1957 to 1958 in and around the former British territory
Kiribati.
''There are about 250 survivors that we know of. Only 25 of those
reported well in 1996, the rest are suffering various degrees of poor
health,'' Sefton told Kyodo News.
He said extensive studies of the veterans' health showed they
suffered uncommonly high incidences of cancer, including brain,
throat, lung, colon, stomach, bladder, prostate and liver; skin,
skeletal and muscular problems; and deformities and deaths among
their children.
The veterans' lawyer, Gordon Paine, said the case would be run as a
class action although it was not yet certain how many veterans would
be involved.
He said a legal restriction that prevents British servicemen from
suing other members of the armed forces, including the government,
was unlikely to apply to the New Zealand veterans, leaving the way
clear for the legal action to proceed.
The final form of the proceedings was being prepared in conjunction
with a British lawyer but would probably be a drawn-out process,
Paine said.
''We're suing a sovereign government on its own turf, so it's not an
easy task,'' he said.
Sefton witnessed five nuclear detonations and was on board the
frigate Pukaki twice when it sailed through ''ground zero,'' the
radioactive area of the detonation, within hours of the blasts.
He was forced to leave the navy at the age of 30 and now, at 63,
takes painkillers every day to deal with the debilitating effects of
SAPHO Syndrome, which effects the muscular and skeletal systems.
The veterans were determined to proceed with the class action no
matter what obstacles arose, he said.
''We've got to fund this somehow, but we're going to do it,'' he
said. ''The compensation is not a matter of greed or personal
monetary gain...but the perpetrators of this whole mess, the British
government, we want them to be accountable through a court of law for
the way they misused our servicemen.''
-----------------
US set to ease benefit rules for 'atomic' veterans
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The Bush administration has agreed to
ease restrictions on federal benefits for veterans who were exposed
to atomic weapons radiation and later developed certain cancers, a
senator said on Monday.
"Atomic veterans" are currently eligible for federal compensation,
but many have not been able to meet the government's tough standards
to prove their illnesses were related to military service.
A regulation expected to be published on Wednesday removes the burden
of proof from atomic veterans with cancers of the lungs, colon, bone,
brain or ovary, Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota said.
The government will be required to pay monthly benefits to veterans
with those cancers who served at atomic test sites, or to their
surviving spouses, Wellstone said.
"This is long overdue. ... It's just so unconscionable that this
happened to these veterans," Wellstone said in an interview.
Department of Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Laurie Tranter confirmed
that a regulation regarding atomic veterans was expected to be
published on Wednesday. She said she could not provide other details
but that it probably would take effect in January after a public
comment period.
The government has estimated that 205,000 veterans were exposed to
radiation during Cold War nuclear tests from 1945 to 1962. A further
195,000 were exposed after the 1945 World War Two atomic bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, where they were ordered to clean up
contaminated debris. Many have died from cancer.
Soldiers said they were not warned about potential dangers and given
minimal or no protection from radiation exposure.
Congress has passed laws setting compensation for atomic veterans,
but veterans and their widows have been lobbying the government to
ease eligibility requirements for years.
"It's just like an answer to a prayer. I'm so excited," said Pat
Broudy, national legislative director f??? Association of Atomic
Veterans and the widow of an atomic veteran.
Benefits could be as high as $2,00???veterans and about $950 a month
for widows, Broudy said.
----------------
Antinuclear groups begin conferences in Nagasaki
NAGASAKI, Aug. 7 (Kyodo) - Two Japanese antinuclear groups began
three-day conferences in Nagasaki on Tuesday, two days before the
56th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the southwestern Japan
city.
The meetings are the latter part of their annual conventions that
started in Hiroshima earlier this month.
About 6,500 people from Japan and abroad took part in an opening
ceremony by the Japan Council Against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo).
''We must not forgive the Japanese government for following the
United States, which is against nuclear elimination, and for taking
an arrogant attitude toward Asian countries,'' said Yoji Kobayashi,
head of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren).
''Let us renew our pledge to move toward nuclear elimination at the
first convention in the 21st century,'' he said.
Hasmy Agam, Malaysian ambassador to the United Nations, urged
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Japan -- the only country in
the world to have suffered atomic bombings -- to make further efforts
toward the elimination of their nuclear weapons.
Only NGOs can help stimulate public opinion to make governments
realize people's wish to abolish nuclear weapons, he said.
Meanwhile, about 2,000 people attended the opening gathering of the
Japan Congress Against A and H Bombs (Gensuikin).
Koei Sato, secretary general of Gensuikin, said the body must move
ahead to eliminate nuclear weapons, stop relying on nuclear power and
improve benefits for A-bomb survivors.
Nagasaki high school students reported they have collected more than
10,000 signatures from young people in Japan calling for world peace
and elimination of nuclear weapons.
The students, ''Peace Ambassadors from Nagasaki,'' will visit the
U.N. European headquarters in late August to hand to U.N. arms
control officials papers bearing the signatures.
Gensuikyo has close ties with the Japanese Communist Party, while
Gensuikin has ties with the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social
Democratic Party and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo).
--------------------
Hiroshima filmmaker records 33 years with A-bomb victim wife
FUKUOKA, Aug. 7 (Kyodo) - A film documenting the filmmaker's 33-year
experience of living with his Hiroshima A-bomb victim wife is winning
critical acclaim.
The full-length documentary, ''Tsuma no Kao'' (The Face of My Wife),
was shot by Akito Kawamoto, a 74-year-old amateur filmmaker and
chairman of a Hiroshima sake distillery, who recorded the daily
struggles of his 75-year-old wife Kiyoko.
Kiyoko is a ''hibakusha,'' the Japanese term for victims who were
exposed to radiation from the world's first nuclear weapons in 1945.
The two-hour film, first shot with an 8-mm camera and later with a
digital camera, will be featured at the Yamagata international
documentary film festival to be held in October this year.
Kawamoto said he conceived the idea for the film in 1968 when his
wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
The film shows how having had her thyroid removed, Kiyoko was prone
to chronic fatigue and relied on blood transfusion, drug and bottled
oxygen to keep her soul and body together.
Until her bed-ridden mother-in-law died in 1996, Kiyoko spent 13
years attending her at home.
The two-hour film captures Kiyoko's daily life, including moments
when she betrayed her anger and vented her frustration, as she
struggled with her disease while looking after her bed-ridden mother-
in-law.
''I want my life back. Give me back my life,'' she was heard saying
to herself on one scene.
Another scene shows Kiyoko being rushed to hospital where she met a
fellow hibakusha, an elderly woman who had a big burn scar on her
body.
''People say hibakusha are privileged because they don't have to pay
their medical bills. I will pay any sum, if only I can have my health
back,'' the woman says softly as Kiyoko listens, nodding her, again
and again.
The documentary closes with Kiyoko, tears welling in her eyes,
saying, ''I want to live until my grandson gets married.''
''The Face of My Wife'' has been chosen as outstanding work for new
Japanese documentaries at the Yamagata film festival.
''My wife wants to share her experience about the atomic bomb. That's
why she agreed to get herself all bared in the documentary,''
Kawamoto says.
As a young man, Kawamoto himself had fought with tuberculosis, a
disease he got after he was drafted as a student recruit during the
war.
''War messed up my life,'' he said.
----------------
Two held after swimming into UK nuclear sub base
LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Two anti-nuclear activists were arrested at
a British naval base on Monday after they swam into a high-security
area where submarines armed with Trident nuclear missiles are
berthed, naval officials said.
The activists, from an antinuclear arms group called "Trident
Ploughshares," were arrested in the early hours while spray-painting
the word "ILLEGAL" on to the side of a submarine at the Faslane naval
base near Dunbarton in Scotland.
But a spokeswoman at the base said no paint had been found on the
submarine. "They didn't get on board any submarines and they didn't
do any damage," she said.
Britain has four Trident submarines.
The protesters, who were charged with breaching security, said their
action was timed to coincide with the 56th anniversary of the atomic
bombing of Hiroshima in World War Two.
One of them, zoology student Rachel Remnant, 21, said they started
swimming across Gare Loch -- a lake on which the base is located --
about midnight on Sunday. After swimming about a mile (1.6 km) across
the lake in wetsuits they entered the high-security area.
"As we swam to the submarine, our thoughts were for the victims of
Hiroshima," said in a statement after her arrest.
"We were swimming for peace."
She and fellow activist Marcus Armstrong, 41, a community worker, are
due to appear in court on Tuesday.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100
Director, Technical Extension 2306
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service Fax:(714) 668-3149
ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/scperle
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
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