What is different between Nazi Holocaust and British chemical testing? may be the Holocaust killed 6 million (60 Lakhs People) and British test killed a fraction of it, but at the end its genocide. Why the world is talking about Nazi's and why not about British? Hoo.. we call them as War crimes which are done by British and genocide by Nazi? I really don't understand why this being covered and not being compensated?
Below is the is the article I read from Times of India, but why it was not even highlighted in BBC or CNN or any other western channels? It certainly not my aversion to western, they are good and Kind in the modern world. The only thing I want to know is "Why it's being hidden?"
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Indian soldiers serving under the British Raj were used as guinea pigs to test the effects of poison gases on humans by scientists from the world's oldest chemical warfare research installation here in the UK, according to newly-released archival documents.
The Indian soldiers suffered severe burns from the gas as part of the trials, which started in the early 1930s and lasted almost through to Indian independence.
The trials were part of a study by British scientists to ascertain if the poison gas inflicted greater damage on colored skins than on white Caucasians. The scientists had been posted to the Indian sub-continent to develop poison gases to use against the Japanese.
Several-hundred Indians were part of the trials, according to documents released by the UK's National Archives. It is unclear if the Indians were told about the potentially serious medical implications of the trials before they were sent into the gas chambers by the scientists from Porton Down, the UK's chemical warfare research laboratory.
On Saturday, The Guardian newspaper quoted a lawyer representing British soldiers similarly tested at Porton Dwon to say, "I would be astonished if these Indian subjects (of the Empire) gave any meaningful consent to taking part in these tests, particularly as they were conducted during the days of Empire. No one would have agreed...if they knew beforehand what was going to happen".
Mustard gas is now a recognized carcinogenic substance and the Indians suffered severe burns. Some British servicemen, recruited over time to take part in similar experiments, recently won compensation for being duped into being treated as guinea pigs.
The tests on the Indians, before and during World War II, are seen to be part of a deadly programme of identifying the exact amount of poison gas that could prove deadly on the battlefield. The British scientists, who recorded in the documents that several Indians suffered so severely they had to be hospitalized, reported a "large number" of burns.
Many of the Indians, who were sent into the gas chambers wearing no more than "drill shorts and open-necked khaki cotton shirts" to gauge the effect of mustard gas on the eyes, also had to be hospitalized after the experiment.
The revelation is seen to be a shocking afterword to the lengthy accounts of British colonial behaviour in India. But in a sign the British authorities are unwilling to entertain claims for compensation from the affected Indian soldiers or their heirs and successors, officials are quoted to say the trials took place in a different era and the studies in India "included defensive research...(and) supported those conducted in simulated conditions in the UK in a different environment". -Times of India 2 Sep 2007
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British scientists wiped out an island with biological experiment
THE killing power of anthrax was demonstrated by British scientists during World War II when it was released on a tiny Scottish island to wipe out a flock of sheep.
Gruinard island, off the Wester Ross coast, was so contaminated it remained out of bounds for almost 50 years.
The 1942 tests were set up amid fears the Germans might attack the UK with biological or chemical weapons.
A film was made of the Gruinard Island tests but it remained classified until 1997. During the tests, sheep were taken to an open field, secured in wooden frames, and exposed to a bomb that scattered anthrax spores.
The sheep started dying three days later.
Despite attempts to disinfect Gruinard Island, the spores left by the experiments kept the island in quarantine for 48 years.
The final report on the tests suggested anthrax could render cities uninhabitable "for generations".
In 1986, £500,000 was spent to decontaminate the 520-acre island.
The ground was soaked in 280 tonnes of formaldehyde diluted in 2000 tonnes of seawater.
Topsoil was also scooped into sealed containers and shipped away.
An independent watchdog set up by the Ministry of Defence ordered that a flock of sheep should graze the island to prove the clean-up was successful.
In April 1990, junior defence minister Michael Neubert made the half-mile journey from the mainland to declare Gruinard safe by finally removing its red warning sign. The Daily Report
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