For more than 60 years, the United States navy used the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a testing ground for bombs and other military exercises.

The army left 10 years ago, but islanders now suffer higher rates of cancer and other illnesses than the rest of Puerto Rico, a Carribean territory controlled by the US.

Residents are blaming the weapons testing for the illnesses, but the US government said there is no link.

Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi reports.