SYDNEY, April 15: Some Aboriginal children taken from their parents under past government policies were used as guinea pigs in medical experiments, an Australian Senate inquiry was told on Tuesday.

The allegation was made by a member of the Stolen Generations Alliance of Aborigines who had been forcibly removed from their homes to be raised in white institutions, in an attempt to foster assimilation.

“As well as being taken away, they were used ... there are a lot of things that Australia does not know about,” Kathleen Mills told the first day of the inquiry into compensation for the “Stolen Generations.” Outside the hearing in the northern city of Darwin, Ms Mills told journalists her uncle had been a medical orderly and had told her that children were used as “guinea pigs” for leprosy treatments.

“He said it made our people very, very ill ... the treatment almost killed them,” she said. “It was a common experience and a common practice.” The leader of the Greens Party, Senator Bob Brown, said he was “shocked and alarmed” by the “very, very serious” allegations and called for them to be investigated.

“It may be right, it may not,” he said. “It needs investigation.”

“If within the indigenous community there is a feeling that children may have been experimented upon for a treatment for leprosy or anything else, the air needs to be cleared.” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology to the Stolen Generations in an historic address to parliament in February.

Up to 50,000 mainly mixed-race children were taken from their families until 1970 in a bid to assimilate them into white society, while full-blooded Aborigines were expected to die out.

The inquiry is examining a compensation scheme for victims and their descendants that could involve payments of 20,000 dollars (18,350 US dollars) plus 3,000 dollars for each year of institutionalisation.—AFP