Atomic bomb veterans receive £8k compensation - but no apology

By Susie Boniface and Frank Thorne, sundaymirror.co.uk 20/07/2008

Veteran's Atomic Bomb (Pic: SM)

EXCLUSIVE - JUSTICE FOR NUKE VETS CAMPAIGN

He is the first of the few - a veteran of Britain's atomic bomb tests finally compensated for 50 years of suffering.

But for Ernie Moore the £8,000 he has been awarded is worthless without the apology he has waited half a lifetime for.

Today Ernie, 72, is one of just 11 men to be compensated - by the Isle of Man Government, which on Tuesday decided to pay out to its vets.

But the British Ministry of Defence still refuses to recognise their plight, claiming that they are too old to remember what happened.

Fighting back tears, he said: "The decision-makers sit in comfort in the Houses of Parliament and they don't consider the man on the ground.

"No amount of financial compensation can make up for what they did to us. I just want a simple apology. Is that too much to ask?"

Ernie was one of 22,000 fit and healthy young men sent to witness hundreds of test blasts as we raced to build the bomb at the height of the Cold War.

Stationed on Christmas Island, a coral atoll in the South Pacific in 1957, he was ordered to stand and watch as scientists detonated three bombs - each bigger than the blast which flattened Hiroshima.

In the years that followed, his small group of soldiers from the Isle of Man - who joined 25 Field Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers - died one by one, leaving only Ernie to tell their tale.

Last month scientists backed up research done in New Zealand which proved vets were genetically damaged - and the UK Government is under pressure to repeat the work.

Speaking from Perth, Australia, where he now lives, Ernie said: "We had no choice but to face those nuclear tests."

The 3,000 surviving veterans like Ernie say they suffer rare cancers and illnesses. Their wives were plagued with miscarriages and their children have a high risk of birth defects.

Anyone at the tests who was injured has until Thursday to register a claim against the MoD by contacting Rosenblatt's solicitors on 020 7955 0880.