Cook Islands couple seek nuclear compensation | NATIONAL | NEWS

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Couple seek nuclear compensation

Sep 16, 2007 7:05 PM

A Cook Islands couple battling for compensation from British nuclear testing in the Pacific are bringing their fight to New Zealand.

They have won backing from an NZ constitutional expert but there are concerns their time is running out.

The Meyers believe Tauariki Meyer's neurological disease was caused by radioactive fallout from British nuclear testing on Christmas and Malden Islands 50 years ago.

"I believe that Tau like a lot of Cook Islanders has a DNA mutation and it's never been picked up by anybody because when you die in the Cook Islands you are buried the same day," says Wayne Meyer, Tauariki's husband.

The northern Cooks was 500 kilometres away from explosions, but within the testing exclusion zone.

Tauariki Meyer remembers as a child seeing the brilliant flash and the dead fish which floated to the top of the lagoon.

But the testing was so long ago that proving Tauariki's condition is caused by nuclear fallout is scientifically difficult.

"I didn't know how incredibly close to the northern Cook Islands these explosions were. They have a political case, they have a moral case, they have a case in justice, I think in terms of the law it is extremely uphill," says constitutional lawyer Bill Hodge.

But Hodge believes the UK owes a constitutional duty to the Cook Islands people and New Zealand should also be pushing for it.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters did not want to comment about Tau's case but the government is closely watching to see if Britain first pays compensation to New Zealand sailors who were close to the nuclear explosion.

The veterans are taking a class action against Britain as many of them were not wearing protective clothing despite only being 30 kilometres from the blast.

Britain has so far ignored them, reducing the odds of success for people who lived on neighbouring islands.

But Tauariki's husband is not giving up.

"I can't stop, because if I stop there is no hope for Tau, no hope whatsoever," says Wayne Meyer.

Source: ONE News