Fiji slams UK for refusal to compensate victims of nuclear tests

Fiji has slammed the UK government for its refusal to compensate Fijian soldiers who were exposed to radiation during British nuclear tests in late 1950s.

“We are bringing justice to a brave and proud group of Fijians to whom a great injustice was done,” Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said at a Friday ceremony held for the recognition of the suffering of the veterans.

“We are righting a wrong. We are closing an unfortunate chapter in our history,” Bainimarama added in an apparent reference to the UK’s refusal over the compensation.

The prime minister also stated, “Fiji is not prepared to wait for Britain to do the right thing. We owe it to these men to help them now, not wait for the British politicians and bureaucrats.”

Fiji was a British colony at the time of the nuclear tests.

Two dozen survivors of the UK’s nuclear tests who attended the Friday event each received more than 3,000 pounds (about USD 9,855) from a compensation pool of nearly 950,000 pounds (USD 2.95 million).

The victims had reportedly suffered from various illnesses, including leukemia.

More than 70 Fijians were stationed on the Pacific Island of Kiritimati, then recognized as Christmas Island, during the tests in 1957 and 1958.

One of the surviving victims, 76-year-old Naibuka Naicegulevu, whose job was to clean and repair vehicles on the island, was quoted as saying, “We were only told that we will go there to test some weapons, but when we got there, we found out that we were brought there to be part of the British test of weapons of mass destruction.”

“My two sons, now in their early 30s, get sick suddenly and they can be ill for one week, sometimes more. This is all because of the radiation that we were exposed to,” he added.

MFB/HSN/SS

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