Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 27. november 2008 / Timeline November 27, 2008
Version 3.526. November 2008, 28. November 2008
11/27/2008
France finally agrees to pay damages to nuclear test victims: Radiation illnesses must be recognised - minister. Veterans' relief at end to 40-year wall of silence.
By: Angelique Chrisafis in Paris The Guardian, Thursday 27 November 2008
Yesterday the French defence minister finally broke the taboo, saying a law would be introduced in January to compensate those suffering illnesses among the 150,000 army and civilians who worked on the tests in Algeria and French-owned Polynesian atolls.
Hervé Morin said France would draw up a list of health problems that could be linked to radiation exposure over the course of 210 tests from 1960 to 1996. He admitted that France lagged behind countries such as the US in failing to acknowledge long-term health effects, saying: "Today, we must recognise these victims."
Jacques Chirac caused controversy when he resumed tests around atolls in French Polynesia in the south Pacific shortly after being elected president in 1995. In 2006 a French medical research body found nuclear testing had caused an increase in cancer on the nearest inhabited islands.
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