Issued 16 October 2023
On behalf of the Combined History Archive of Nuclear Veterans (CHANV). In support of the nuclear test veteran community (NTVC) that is, the military, civilian personnel and by standing indigenous people of the Australian and Pacific UK nuclear bomb testing experiments of 1952 to 67. By Dennis Hayden, Nuclear Veteran and Author, V Club Associate of Labrats International.
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The UK Nuclear Test Veteran Community’s Campaign for Justice
Remain as Ever on the Right Side of History, Truth and Reality.
The NTVC’s Campaign for justice is still being undermined by some politicians undoubtedly given obsolete advice by senior MoD civil servants. From an historic perceptive these individuals appear intent to continue to block progress.
Successive UK government’s have followed a cold war discriminatory nuclear veterans policy. A 70 year policy which is reliant only on : cover-ups , betrayal and withholding evidence. A policy which, in 2023, has been fully exposed as no longer having any legal or democratic credibility.
This update, supported by archive history, follows the hopes expressed in CHANV News Bulletin No.5 of March 2022, which reported on the 19 February Seminar of the LABRATS’ and the Daily Mirror’s #lookmeintheeye campaign for medallic recognition and settlement of NTVC claims. A seminar in preparation for the historic success of 8 June 2022.
Where we are today is therefore the result of many dedicated and selfless individuals and organisation who have refused to allow deception to triumph over truth. The support has been cross party politically and generationally. A triumph of common sense, underpinned and supported by the accumulated evidence held by individual activist members of the British, Australian and mainly NZ nuclear test veteran Associations. Many of whom have now gone before us but the truth has survived in their DNA.
Thanks go also to non-government organisations with stakeholder nuclear and ethical interests; the Daily Mirror campaign for nuclear veterans justice since 2002; the archive data during the Atomic Veterans Group litigation of 2005 to 2014, acquired by the CVFI for Rosenblatt Solicitors of London; Fission line Reports by Alan Rimmer through difficult years from 2014 and 2019 and the ever growing history database of LABRATS History Academy by www.labrats.international and this Community Interest Company’s ‘Atom’ magazine, that is, the worldwide news for the atomic family : Issue numbers 1 to 11.
Most significantly the input of dedicated activists, veteran and scientific, in UK, Australia and New Zealand and elsewhere who effectively have ‘ blown the whistle’ with regard to the reality and extent of the NTVC betrayal.
THIS IS AN INHERITED PROBLEM
In October 2023 the evolved criminality of nuclear test veteran policy has become a malign inheritance for officials and politicians today. However, younger generations are very perceptive of this because many have found they too are also victims. The mistakes of political and civil service predecessors in the United Kingdom and Australia are recognised and this will enable history, truth and reality to prevail for the benefit of all.
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NEWS BULLETIN NO. 6 THE COMBINED HISTORY ARCHIVE OF NUCLEAR VETERANS : ISSUED 16 OCTOBER 2023.
COVER - UPS, BETRAYAL AND WITHHOLDING EVIDENCE
DENIAL OF ACCESS TO RECORDS
The denial of access to unredacted and complete military medical records held by the Ministry of Defence and contractual partners the Atomic Weapons Establishment and Navy , Army and RAF Record Offices is now widely recognised to be illegal.
Two former Prime Ministerial statements (United Kingdom and Australian) from the 1950’s have been exposed as being on the wrong side of ethics, morality and the known scientific truth of the hazard of radiation.
In 1952, the Australian PM, Sir Robert Menzies, having seen reports of radiation induced health damage following the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945, lied and recklessly reassured a very worried Australian public: “no conceivable harm“ to servicemen, land or population would occur from the atmospheric bomb testing about to take place on the once pristine Australian continent .
The above statement by Menzies is a blatant politically expedient lie with now known tragic results for all involved and for all generations to come .
In 1955 , UK PM Sir Anthony Eden, having read the UK Medical Research Council report by eminent biologists and physicists warning knowledge emerging from the 1945 bombing of Japan posed a ‘significant risk of genetic damage‘ to those taking part in atomic bomb testing, the Prime Minister ignored the warning and dismissed it as “a pity, but we cannot help it“.
This statement by Eden put power, prestige and profit ahead of any concern with regard to the hazards of radioactive fall-out on the servicemen deliberately working without protective clothing .
Seven decades later, the continued refusal to allow access to military medical records has now become a pivotal focus of the nuclear test veteran community ( NTVC ) to get to the truth of the legacy ill health , premature deaths and genetic damage incurred by those who took part in the UK 1952 to 67 nuclear experiments.
In 2023 non-disclosure of military medical records is one of only a few remaining ways by which the UK and Australian democratic governments are able to deny a duty of care.
Shadow Attorney General for the UK Labour Party , Emily Thornberry MP summed up the criminality of this in 2022 when she stated:
“It is imperative the medical records of our nuclear test veterans were maintained in a comprehensive, accurate and accessible state, so that each individual family and doctors could fully understand the impact that the exposure was having on their health.
If those records instead have been concealed, altered or falsified in any way, and at any time, that is just not a scandal. It is almost certainly a crime.”
THE UK PRIME MINISTER ALSO NOW ADMITS THE DENIAL OF ACCESS TO MEDICAL RECORDS IS A POTENTIAL CRIME
Evidence of denial of full access to military medical records was shown to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, at the 8 June 2022 historic, face to face meeting, with representatives of the NTVC. When asked if he thought this is evidence of a potential crime the Prime Minister said: “Yes it is” . When he then asked the Daily Mirror representative Susie Boniface where the NTVC thought the files were kept and was told, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the “archives must be opened”.
But this has not been allowed to happen. Military medical records released so far continue to be redacted, falsified and/or incomplete. The writer of this Bulletin can confirm that over a 30 years period in 1992, 2004 and 2022 the records accessed by himself have been incomplete of information with regard to vital blood and urine tests and, where dosimetry of residual radioactivity etc is concerned, the documents released have been 80% redacted.
Similar examples are being lodged by many surviving nuclear veteran claimants and families of the deceased with lawyers. All of this of course is unfinished business. Not only for surviving nuclear veterans, but also for their widows and their genetically impaired descendants.
Those of the NTVC seeking access to military medical records and other evidence such as radiation dose levels have found the information is unequivocally held by the Ministry of Defence and/or contractual partners the Atomic Weapons Establishment and the Heads of Personnel Records offices of the Tri -Service Navy, Army and RAF. (More details follow below)
CROWD FUNDED LEGAL CAMPAIGN
Details of the crowd funded legal campaign to gain release of military medical records which currently are only released to nuclear test veterans or descendants redacted, falsified and/or incomplete.
On 21 September 2023 the Daily Mirror, in another exclusive report by the stalwart investigative journalist, Susie Boniface, she revealed a cache of 150 document files have been uncovered showing military personnel in the nuclear tests were frequently blood tested and had medical examinations to measure their levels of radioactive contamination.
The additional document files were uncovered the day after Defence Minister Andrew Murrison MP had explained how officials had been unable to find the military medical records of nuclear test veterans. The Minster told MP’s:
“We of course, do everything to locate records when people ask for them ...
we could find none on this occasion.”
A glib response. Often stated hubristically over many decades. Those asking the MoD for these records often get this response simply because the MoD have hidden them with a contractual partner, the AWE or at Military Service Records Offices.
It has been shown in his political career that Dr Andrew Murrison MP has a track record of only giving the ‘right’ answers rather that the actual facts. As a former shadow Defence Minister In 2009 Dr Murrison (Ex Royal Navy Surgeon) was appointed as ‘political advisor’ to Conservative Leader, David Cameron’s pre-election Military Covenant Commission (MCC) before the UK 2010 general election .
Mr Cameron’s MCC initiative has since been recognised by the nuclear test veteran community as a pre-election deception to gain votes, rather than an initiative of any possible meaningful benefit to any of the armed forces’ veteran community. The MCC recommendations were promised by the prospective Prime Minister to be ‘enshrined into law‘ and give better conditions for the UK veterans community.
However, after the 2010 election, won by Cameron, the MCC recommendations were not ‘enshrined into law‘ as promised. This was reported in the press as being on advice of senior MoD officials. None of this despicable deception came as any surprise to the NTVC because it had been noted in the 2009 MCC launch documents terms of conditions: ‘any recommendations of the Commission will only be enshrined into law if they are affordable within the MoD’s current budget’.
Bonus payments are always ‘affordable’ to MoD senior civil servants but improvements to armed forces veterans conditions especially nuclear veterans never are. Political betrayal of this type has undermined the nuclear test veterans community’s duty of care. Our democracy’s integrity has suffered from this for decades.
The military medical records denied access to, could indeed have helped GP family practitioners and NHS doctors to give early remedial treatments for legacy ill health and genetic damage. (See later statements below by Alan Owen CEO of LABRATS)
Other records sourced, through the umbrella of combined history archive of nuclear veterans contacts, indicate the military were indeed noted as being an ideal opportunity to be used as ‘guinea pigs’ in the 1950’s. To be used in ‘government eyes only’ medical research and then to be abandoned.
In the decades after the 1952 to 67 experiments, as individuals, including nuclear veterans have been ‘flagged’ as ‘persons of interest‘ to the Ministry of Defence and contractual partners for secret post-mortems, without family consent, of blood, tissue, organs and bone. In these instances coroners, pathologists and assorted doctors have also become well paid contractual partners of the MoD. (2010 – The 600 page Redfern Report)
SOME HISTORIC DETAILS CONNECTED TO NEW LEGAL ACTION
A £100,000 crowd funding has now been set up to support the legal fight for access to military medical records. The Daily Mirror has put in the first £20,000 and have partnered with the BBC and Adelaide Advertiser which first broke the scandal of Australian, Yami Lester in 1980. The recently uncovered 150 document files examine the benefits of exposing military personnel at test locations in Australia included details of “medical examinations of natives" up to 1000 miles away from the bomb detonations.
Karina Lester, said her father Yami, who was blinded when a boy by the “black mist” fall out that had swept across South Australia after the Operation Totem 1953 bomb test, is a ‘person of interest’ in respect of missing medical records. Karina says, for families returning to the indigenous people’s lands:
“There is so much unknown. Is the land safe? Is our drinking water safe? We still suffer.”
Simple questions of by-stander people exposed to radioactive fall out that have been swept under the carpet.
Of course, within the context of Australian politics, the questions asked by Karina cannot be answered by the State of South Australia, where the main exposures happened, because the Federal Government in Canberra is the sole arbiter with regard to Australia’s military medical records and other records related to the 1952 to 1967 nuclear test experiments. The records are hidden by Canberra, strictly controlled never to be released. Or now possibly amongst archive documents shipped to ‘Nucleus’, the new purpose – built 2019 depository in the far north of Scotland, along with medical records of the Maralinga military hospital at RAAF Edinburgh field all of which are officially ‘missing’ .
Furthermore, the Federal Australian Government in Canberra signed the now notorious bi-lateral Treaty in December 1993 with the UK government to deny any compensation to military, civilian and indigenous peoples who may have been victims of the nuclear fall out which almost all of the Australian continent. (This is also covered below and is in clear breach of the 1986 Royal Australian Commission’s 600 plus page report)
The Daily Mirror report; with regard to law and the withholding of medical records states: 'Although veterans have repeatedly lost court cases in the past the new crowd funded case, without any legal aid, will focus on the non-disclosure of military medical records. Non – disclosure of medical records is considered to be a case of post-traumatic stress which has no time limit because it causes injury and mental health of entire families.'
The case may then be one for a compensation claim. This is because to withhold, falsify or delete health care records is also recognised as illegal. Managing partner and lawyer, Jason McCue of McCue Jury and Partners, has appealed to anyone involved in the nuclear testing to join the claim. For the Daily Mirror report on 21 September 2022 he stated:
“Successive governments have denied them the truth and peace of mind . They were treated like spent ammunition - discarded and distained by those who had a legal and moral duty of care . They and their families have suffered decades of immeasurable grief, harm, fear and if their civilian doctors had been given proper access to their military records, there might be many more of them alive today.“
The Government’s Treasury Solicitors Office (T/Sol) will undoubtedly be awakened from their limitlessly tax payers’ coffin and released from the establishment’s crypt of denial . Again, as in the past , to engage in yet another David and Goliath attrition to defend the indefensible they can never hope to conclusively win.
DENIAL OF DUTY OF CARE
The denial of any duty of care for the NTVC has been followed with great similarity by both nations. The UK who manufactured the nuclear weapons and Australia who provided the uranium and test locations.
In October 2023, despite the massive step forward achieved by the historic 8 June 2022 #lookmeintheeye meeting of NTVC representatives and the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson the Ministry of Defence policy to deny any harm to those involved in the nuclear tests is still fundamentally unchanged. Military medical records and other evidence has not been fully released by the UK government. Nor has it been released by the equally regressive and unethical Australian Federal government.
In 1986, the catalyst for this joint UK / Australia political exclusion of any duty of care began with preparative talks after the return from London of the Royal Australian Commission. The 1993 Treaty by the UK and Australian governments agreed ‘working together’ to deny any duty of care or compensation for military, civilian personnel or descendants of those who served at the Australian nuclear test locations of 1952, Monte Bello Islands, 1953 to 57 at Emu Field and Maralinga.
At Maralinga a 1956 a report, overseen by the Ministry of Defence’s contractual partner the UK’s Atomic Weapons Research Establishment – AWRE (now known as the AWE), agreed the UK and Australian governments would jointly be involved with using many assorted contractual partners for experiments using servicemen as guinea pigs. The research was needed ‘to assist nuclear industry’ and also to examine ‘the possible effects of ingestion of radioactive fall out ( on men – redacted -and animals ).‘
This evolved unethical and criminal research at Maralinga continued at Christmas Island with the Operation Grapple series of hydrogen bomb explosions from 1957 to 62. Meanwhile, at Maralinga 1953 to 63, the 600 + so called ‘minor atomic trials’ released more highly toxic radioactive contamination into the environment composed of beryllium, uranium and plutonium. This exceeded the contamination of the nine major bomb tests.
The mess left behind at Maralinga is what initially prompted an irate Royal Australian Commission to descend upon London in 1985. It also led to the Australian Government telling UK their hydrogen bomb tests (Operation Grapple) will not be allowed to take place in Australia.
In 1993 both nations created a Minister for Veterans post. Archive records since confirm this was to enforce government policy against the interests of the NTVC in UK and in Australia rather than to facilitate any meaningful duty of care for them or for their descendants. A point confirmed in 1999 as policy of the UK government, see below.
RECENT UK POLICY STATEMENTS
Recent UK policy statements in the Press and in Parliament confirm there is no fundamental change in Government senior civil service advice given to Ministers.
Apart from the very welcome Nuclear Test Medal award result of the 8 June 2022 meeting between representatives of the NTVC and Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Ministry of Defence policy towards claims remains a policy of continued unsubstantiated denial. That is, the policy of denial is fundamentally unchanged.
The joint policy of the UK and Australian governments is still locked in obsolete cold war expediency and rhetoric to deliberately ignore the truth, overlook the truth, lie to the nuclear test veteran community, deny them any access to evidence and leave them all to die.
In the UK House of Lords , the Secretary of State for Defence , Baroness Goldie recently confirmed government policy for the NTVC when this senior spokesperson:
Ignored all advances in the understanding of the hazards to health since the dawn of the atomic age.
Made no acknowledgement of the diagnostic capability of cytogenetic blood testing to promote early remedial treatments.
Repeated the long running defamation that persistent questioners are labelled as being ‘vexatious’ correspondents purely because they never get credible answers to their long running concerns.
Falsely claimed the NRPB’s 1980’s and 90’s nuclear veteran mortality studies are based on ‘independent‘ studies undertaken by the National Radiological Protection Board reports of mortality in nuclear test veterans. In fact these studies are not independent and have been found to have been biased and perverted for political reasons.
Repeated the NTVC can access military medical records which are held in government archives whilst failing to mention this is often refused and if documents are released they are inevitably incomplete, falsified and or redacted to be of little use.
Ended by saying the NTVC has a right to apply for compensation but fails to mention this is first rejected then has to be appealed against when ‘the benefit of reasonable doubt always given to claimants’ is ignored. The historic truth is that claims made by NTVC claimants end up in kangaroo courts of bias and deception.
The above is all part of well rehearsed MoD and civil service discredited barriers to deny accountability.
JOHNNY MERCER MP AND THE OFFICE FOR VETERANS AFFAIRS
Because of everything mentioned above, the current Minister for Veterans in cabinet, Johnny Mercer MP and Office of Veterans Affairs (OVA) in cabinet are being undermined by the advice given by senior civil servants regarding policy advocated since the 8 June 2022 meeting.
Following the Daily Mirror report of 21 September 2023, announcing the crowd funding to pay for legal action for the release of military medical records, in another exclusive report by Susie Boniface, Alan Owen CEO of LABRATS (whose father James witnessed 24 nuclear bomb blasts in 78 days in 1962 and later died at age 52) is reported to have earlier shown Minister for Veterans, Johnny Mercer MP, the additional 150 file of documents showing nuclear veterans were indeed routinely secretly blood tested.
Alan Owen was told the Minister could do nothing to help. Alan is reported as saying Mr Mercer urged him to start a legal action against the MoD. This gained prominent notice in the Daily Mirror report and appeared to worry officials as a comment they would prefer not to be published.
But, given the past history since the late 1990’s, this comes as no surprise because the policy of successive government’s had been firmly set within the confines of the mantra that ‘ the only way to change government NTVC policy is by litigation’. This mantra led to the Atomic Veterans Group Litigation of over 1000 veteran and nuclear widow claimants from 2005 to 2014. A mantra which after repeated legal appeals by the MoD led only to an inconclusive 4:3 verdict by the Supreme Court in 2012 .
Alan Owen was recently diagnosed with genetic heart failure which claimed the life not only of his nuclear veteran father James but also his older brother, and gave Alan a near fatal cardiac arrest last year The MoD has confirmed they hold blood tests from his father, but refuse to let them be seen, even when told it could help diagnose or answer concerns about the Owen family’s inherited genetically damaged health.
Mr Owen explained to Mr Mercer that without this vital information the nuclear test veteran community were denied getting the correct medical treatment today and added : “Johnny Mercer stood up for the Northern Ireland veterans and resigned from the Government when they were being prosecuted for murder . He’s refusing to stand up for nuclear veterans who are dying without the truth, and without the right treatment .”
There’s no historic doubt in the shocking scandal and the legacy of inherited criminality, that blights the lives of the NTVC, the malign policy evolved since 1967 by senior civil servants within the MoD advising Ministers is still exerting a biased and perverted control over events.
The Minister for Veterans post is now for the first time since its creation in 1993 a Cabinet position. With an Office for Veterans Affairs (OVA) team of officials within the Cabinet Office who are helping the current Government to be committed to make the UK to be ‘ the best place in the world to be for all veterans.’ This is the current reality. All however, is still in a delicate balance.
On behalf of the Rt.Hon. Johnny Mercer I received a letter from the OVA in Cabinet of 4 August 2023 regarding my recent book, A Legacy of Inherited Criminality , a letter which ended by saying: “Thank you for the work that you do in support of the Armed Forces community, and for taking the time to write and share A Legacy of Inherited Criminality with us .”
An ‘inherited legacy of criminality’ is what senior officials in the MoD appear to be preventing Johnny Mercer and his OVA team getting to grips with in order to indeed make UK become ‘ the best place in the world to be for all veterans.’
Senior MoD officials and some regressive politicians appear to be committed to ensure that the NTVC is excluded from this commitment. They appear intent to ignore the need to settle this issue completely and honourably.
The historic links to deny a duty of care and accountability for NTVA claims became strengthened considerably in 1993. It will be an act of criminality if, at the whim of unelected senior officials, within the MoD and within this department’s contractual partnerships, the commitment ‘to make the UK the best place in the world to be a veteran‘ reverts again to the debilitating and undemocratic nonsense of the past 70 years .
For Details of the Crowd Funding Legal Case see this https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/nuclear-veterans-case/
NEW ZEALAND
Finally, in 1999, because New Zealand had not been signatory of the bi-lateral UK / Australia 1993 Treaty of ‘working together‘ to deny any duty of care and compensation to the NTVC cohort , any help given by NZ politicians to nuclear veterans was warned by the British High Commissioner , at a meeting in Wellington, would be regarded as ‘an unfriendly act by the British government.’
Sadly, this is the biased mindset of another age, a warning which has impacted on the claims of smaller more vulnerable nations and ethnicities of the Pacific / Australia nuclear weapon test sphere of UK nuclear bomb testing. The Fijian government paid compensation to their servicemen who took part in the UK weapon tests whilst the UK refused to pay them any compensation. The indigenous peoples of Australia and the Pacific are still ignored and abandoned.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom there’s silence from the Chiefs of Staff of the UK Navy, Army and Royal Air Force under whose command and direction the individual Military Records Offices are administered. The unethical, and now possibly criminal, practice of withholding military medical and other records except by releasing incomplete, falsified, and or redacted portions of such records poses a pivotal question for these contractual Ministry of Defence partners.
All the above begs the question : How much did the Chief of Staffs of the UK combined services Records Offices know from 1967 to date about the withholding etc of individual nuclear veterans medical records ?
Archive records actually show the Chiefs of Staff are complicit contractual partners in the repression of this information.
If like, UK Prime Minster, Boris Johnson at the 8 June 2023 meeting, the Chiefs of Staff also are ‘shocked’ to know nothing about this unethical activity of denial, then even more questions are provoked. When asked would this be illegal the Prime Minister in 2022 replied : “Yes , it is.”
Not being in control of these records in the interests of the personnel under their command could therefore be an indictment against the Chiefs of Staff obligation of a duty of care. If they are found to have known and have done nothing to correct this oversight it also does not bode well. Which ever way the Chiefs of Staff may answer this question, or remain silent, they appear condemned as being on the wrong side of ethics, morality, truth and complicit perhaps of even breaking the law.
It’s time for Government to acknowledge the truth and save the reputations of many being discredited in history.
Please support the crowd funding for the new litigation detailed above.
IN SUMMARY : Further notes of possible relevance.
The 7 June 2022 #lookmeintheheye, Nuclear Test Veteran Community (NTVC) representatives’ meeting with UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has since led to the award of the Nuclear Test Medal (NTM). This is available to surviving veterans of the UK Nuclear Test Experiments of 1952 to 67 and posthumously to family representatives of those who participated in the Pacific and Australia nuclear weapon tests.
This was the result of a joint campaign led by Susie Boniface, freelance journalist for the UK’s Daily Mirror and Alan Owen, founder and CEO of the Community Interest Company www.labrats.international .
Military medical records (particularly blood and urine tests taken at military medical facilities) before and after the nuclear tests, of personnel military or civilian, who took part in the UK Australia and Pacific nuclear tests have only been accessed with redactions, falsifications or with parts missing. This is unacceptable in a modern democracy.
Both the United Kingdom and Australian Governments have followed the same policy since 1993. A deliberate criminality in breach of any meaningful military covenant to provide a duty of care for those who loyally served the nation during and after the 1952 to 67 experiments remains unchanged in October 2023, that is 71 years after Operation Hurricane the first UK nuclear bomb test off the NW coast of Australia in 1952 . The historic root causation of withholding military medical records and other evidence to avoid accountability is an inheritance from regressive political decisions made and embellished upon since the 1950’s. Unless addressed honestly the actions of the Ministry of Defence and contractual partners, the AWE and Military Chiefs of Staff of all three services will remain forever a stain of criminality against the two nations primarily involved in the UK nuclear test programme . Without any meaningful settlement of claims the nuclear test veteran community may be forced to demand legal aid for a full statutory public inquiry into the history of the handling of UK nuclear weapon test experiments 1952 to 67 and for the truth to be admitted of the consequences since on the health suffered by those involved.
In support of the continued www.labrats.international and the Daily Mirror campaign.
CHANV 16102023 – In the interests of Freedom of Information, expected in a mature democracy , any recipient of this News Bulletin No.6 is free to pass full copy to any third person they consider may be interested. The views expressed in this News Bulletin No. 6 are stated without prejudice to past, current or possibly future legal action the nuclear test veteran community may be forced to consider in order to gain a settlement of their claims.
Legal advisor to CHANV is International Advocate and Attorney at Law , Ian Anderson (based in New York).