Thousands rally in Tahiti over nuke legacy--French atmospheric testing since going on in 1974--US stopped in 1963
Message from Ellen Thomas of the Proposition One Committee and WILPF:
From 1960 to 1996, France carried out 210 nuclear tests, 17 in the Algerian Sahara and 193 in French Polynesia in the South Pacific.On 17 July 1974, a test exposed Tahiti to 500 times the maximum allowed level of plutonium fallout.
Best report on French testing:The United States continued to put pressure on France to end its testing, and from 1992 to 1995 there was an informal non-testing period. However President Jaques Chirac announced plans to
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/447170/thousands-rally-in-tahiti-over-nuke-legacyJul 03, 2013 · It said papers showed that on 17 July 1974, a test exposed Tahiti to 500 times the maximum allowed level of plutonium fallout.
Thousands rally in Tahiti over nuke legacy
6:26 am todayShare this
Several thousand people in French Polynesia have joined a march demanding France own up to the damage caused by its nuclear weapons tests.
The rally was organised by nuclear veterans group and the pro-independence opposition to mark the day in 1974 when fallout from an atmospheric nuclear test covered all of French Polynesia.
The protest under the banner Maohi Lives Matter came a week before the French president Emmanuel Macron is due for his delayed first official visit to the territory.
A pro-independence parliamentarian Moetai Brotherson said over the years the French tests had contributed to the death of thousands of people yet France refused to apologise for that.
France has ruled out an apology and its government told a roundtable on the nuclear legacy in Paris earlier this month that it never told lies about the testing programme.
The pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru said France had denied the reality for decades, adding that he fought against France's lies which he likened to terrorism.
In 2018, Mr Temaru's Tavini Huiraatira Party and the dominant Maohi Protestant Church alleged that the weapons testing amounted to a crime against humanity and referred all living French presidents to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
July 18, 2021