Chinese victims, who were injured in Qiqihar of northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province in 2003 by leakage of chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese invasion army, filed a lawsuit to the Tokyo District Court on Thursday, demanding state compensation from the Japanese government.

The plaintiffs accused the Japanese government of ignoring the potentially dangerous chemical weapons and failing to prevent the misfortune from happening. They demanded that the Japanese government give a compensation of 1.43 billion yen (about 11.95 million U.S. dollars) in total, including 33 million yen (about 275,000 dollars) to each of the 43 injured and 15.4 million yen ( about 128,000 dollars) to the family of the killed.

Accompanied by a group of Japanese volunteer lawyers, Feng Jiayuan and Ding Shuwen, representing the plaintiffs, submitted the suit paper to the court later in the day.

According to Japanese lawyers, the plaintiffs decided to file the suit because they got no candid answers from the Japanese government since they demanded sustaining support for life and medical care.

On Aug. 4, 2003, fatal leakage from abandoned Japanese chemical weapons killed one and injured 43 others in Qiqihar when barrels of mustard gas were dug up at a construction site. The Japanese government has agreed to give 300 million yen (about 2.5 million dollars) to deal with the aftermath of the accident after rounds of consultation with the Chinese side.

Source: Xinhua