VIC: Maralinga chemical warfare test claims

AAP General News (Australia)
12-30-2001
VIC: Maralinga chemical warfare test claims

MELBOURNE, Dec 30 AAP - Veterans involved in Britain's nuclear tests at Maralinga in
South Australia during the 1950s today claimed they have proof that chemical warfare tests
also occurred.

The claims came after reports that the Australian and British governments could face
compensation bills of millions of dollars or even murder charges after Scotland Yard revealed
it was conducting a criminal investigation into nuclear testing in the 1950s.

Ex-service Australian Atomic Survivors' Association president Max Kimber today said
he had documents which showed that chemical warfare tests were also carried out at Maralinga.

"It (chemical warfare) was tested in relation to the effects of it in water with radiation,"

Mr Kimber told ABC radio.

He said he would release the documents this week, which he claimed were the actual
files dealing with the results of the tests.

Mr Kimber, who has cancer, also called on the Australian and British governments to
release information about the testing that took place on the Montebello Islands, off the
north-west coast of Western Australia.

The British Government conducted three nuclear tests on the Montebello Islands between
1952 and 1956.

Mr Kimber said the British government's admission it used Australian soldiers for trials
at Maralinga vindicated his claims soldiers were used as guinea pigs at the Montebello
Islands.

"We have been completely hoodwinked and used by these governments and (they) never
recognised the service that we gave," he told ABC radio.

He said the Australian Atomic Survivors' Association was willing to assist the Scotland
Yard investigation of Britain's nuclear testing program.

Scotland Yard is investigating claims from widow Shirley Denson that her husband Eric
was ordered to fly his plane into a mushroom cloud in 1958 at Christmas Island off Western
Australia's northern coast, after scientists detonated a nuclear weapon.

The pilot committed suicide in 1976.

Ms Denson claims military leaders knowingly and maliciously exposed him to illegal
levels of radiation.

She said her husband was extremely healthy before the tests, but soon after being exposed
to what she claimed was 20 times the recommended safety limit, developed respiratory and
psychological illnesses.

Scotland Yard is investigating whether it was legal for British military chiefs to
send Mr Denson and his RAF aircrew through the cloud.

If Mrs Denson's case gets to court, it could open the way for similar claims from thousands
of Australian, New Zealand and British servicemen who were exposed to radiation fallout
both in the air and on the ground.

AAP jt/jmd/de

KEYWORD: UK NUCLEAR AUST NIGHTLEAD

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