GIVE US THE TRUTH

NUCLEAR TESTING SCANDAL: BID FOR JUSTICE

- SUSIE BONIFACE

FOR decades, the survivors of the nuclear tests have been denied access to the military medical records which could have helped civilian doctors treat them and their families.

Now the Mirror has uncovered the existence of a cache of 150 documents that shows how servicemen in the nuclear tests were used as "guinea pigs" and routinely given blood tests and medical examinations to measure levels of contamination.

We uncovered the files a day after Defence Minister Andrew Murrison told the Commons how officials had been unable to find medical records of nuclear test veterans.

He told MPs: "We, of course, do everything we can to locate records when people request them, and... we could find none on this occasion."

BLINDED 

After a number of Freedom of Information requests from the Mirror, the Information Commissioner ordered the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) to provide more detail, and as a result we learned of the list of 150 files, which was handed over last week.

Three are available to the public in the National Archives, the contents of the rest remain secret.

But the titles on the files show they include blood counts from people at a dozen different tests.

John Morris, 86, who was at the Christmas Island tests in 1957, said: "I've lost a child, I've had cancer. All the MoD has given us in return for securing the nuclear deterrent is a bunch of lies.

"We just want the bloody truth."

The files also examine the benefits of sending "live" servicemen into blast zones, and give details of "medical examinations of natives" up to 1,000 miles away.