Paris to compensate nuclear victims

[ensho]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/12/2009122313244723672.html


France's parliament has passed a law to compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific.

After decades of complaints by people suffering from radiation-related illnesses, France's senate on Tuesday removed the final legislative hurdle and approved paying off victims of its atomic testing.

France "can at last close a chapter of its history," Herve Morin, the defence minister, said in a statement. He called the law "just, rigorous and balanced".

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In an interview with Le Figaro newspaper earlier this year, Morin said some 150,000 people - including civilian and military personnel - were on site for the 210 tests France carried out in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.

Compensation will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

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Morin has said that anyone with health problems who resided near the test sites would be eligible to seek payouts under the bill - including Algerians, whose country won independence from France in 1962, after the nuclear test programme had started.
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