PAPEETE, Tahiti (26 Jan 2006) -- The island of Tahiti was subjected to fallout from each of France's atmospheric nuclear tests 1,200 kilometers (720 miles) away more than 30 years ago, according to a French Polynesia Assembly report leaked to the local news media. Although the report by an Assembly committee of inquiry is not to be made public until the Assembly next meets on February 9, the French State owned and operated RFO television station aired results of the report Tuesday night and Tahiti's two French daily newspapers presented their versions of the report with front page headlines Wednesday. The media coverage reported the committee's claims that France minimized and even covered up the effects of the 41 atmospheric tests conducted between 1966 and 1974 at the Tuamotu atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa 1,200 kilometers southeast of Papeete. France also conducted 140 underground nuclear explosions at the same sites between 1975 and 1991 and June 1995 to May 1996. Even before the leaked information made headlines, the inquiry committee report was already well on its way to becoming as controversial as the 30-year-old debate over what, if any, effects the French tests have had. That debate has mainly focused on the health of workers at the test sites as well as French Polynesia's population, which today is some 250,000. The inquiry committee's report required nearly six months of investigation, which involved interviews and visits to the southeastern Gambier Islands and Tureia, a small Tuamotu atoll near the Gambiers and only 115 kilometers (71.5 miles) from Moruroa. Unutea Hirshon, a member of the Temaru government's majority coalition party in the Assembly, is chairman of the inquiry committee and head of the Assembly's Standing Committee. She also is a high-ranking member of French Polynesia President Oscar Temaru's independence political party that has used the French nuclear tests as one of many reasons why Tahiti should be an independent country instead of a French overseas territory. The news media's extracts of the inquiry committee's report and final conclusions claim, "it is not exaggerating to think that the (radioactive) fallout occurred on (the island of) Tahiti after each atmospheric test". One media report insisted on the size and movement of radioactive clouds following several atmospheric tests, such as the test named Aldebaran on July 2, 1966 and the test named Centaure on July 17, 1974. The inquiry committee report claims a link between the tests and number of cancer cases in French Polynesia, noting the study under way by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), according to the media. The report recommends the creation of a new inquiry committee to investigate the underground French nuclear tests conducted after France halted its atmospheric tests in 1974, one newspaper reported. As a result of the actual committee's findings, the report also calls for a renegotiation of a higher economic development transfer from France than the current yearly amount of 18 billion French Pacific francs [US$186.6 million], the same newspaper reported. This transfer directly into the French Polynesia budget is known by its French acronym, DGDE, which is France's yearly compensation for the customs taxes French Polynesia no longer receives from imported material connected with the French nuclear testing operation. Tahiti's other daily newspaper reported Wednesday that the report calls for the creation of an archives center involving the French nuclear tests, making all information available to the public. It also calls for the creation of a radiological analysis laboratory and a cell to conduct medical-social follow-ups among the people directly or indirectly affected by the nuclear tests, the same newspaper reported. The inquiry committee based a lot of its report on the work of Bruno Barillot, director of the Observatory of French Nuclear Weapons (CDRPC), and the Commission of Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity. The Commission laboratory took samples last October during a visit to the Gambier Islands. | | However, the Temaru government's inquiry committee did not have access to French government documents about the nuclear testing program because such documents are classified as defense secrets. Although the pro-France, autonomist party of former French Polynesia President Gaston Flosse has five members named to the inquiry committee, they have boycotted all meetings and work. When the committee was created last July, Flosse's party lost a legal challenge over its legitimacy. Last May, Flosse called for the French Polynesia Assembly to create an inquiry committee to clear the air over the controversy about whether French nuclear tests could have posed a danger to people living in the Gambier Islands. Flosse had previously argued that the question of nuclear tests was a French Defense Ministry matter. Meanwhile, the French State asserted that its nuclear tests were conducted in a remote part of the Tuamotu Archipelago with a "permanent concern" for protecting people. The statement from the French High Commissioner's Office in Papeete on Wednesday was a swift reaction to the leaked report. The French government had a permanent concern for the civilian populations as well as those working at the testing sites on the Tuamotu atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa, the High Commissioner's Office statement said. The statement from the High Commissioner's Office also stated, "The state has always expressed its willingness for dialog and transparency to avoid any unfounded allegation and with respect of the very strict legislation relating to communication of classified documents. "The data relating to the tests and permitting evaluation of their medical aspects are within the public domain," the statement continued. That data "is the subject of two reports—one by the International Atomic Energy Agency published in 1998 and the other from the Parliamentary Office of Evaluation of scientific choices and technologies going back to 2002." The medical follow-up of the nuclear tests continues on an inter-ministerial level in Paris, the High Commissioner's Office reported. A liaison committee was created in January 2004 for the coordination and medical follow-up of information dealing with the nuclear tests. "This committee is examining all studies and work relating to the possible consequences regarding health," the statement read. An initial report was made public last April. Another one will be made public at the end of this year. The second will provide recommendations to the government on follow-up actions that can be taken regarding concerns among the civilian population and former personnel who worked at the testing sites, according to the High Commissioner's Office statement. The intention, the statement said, is to create a dialog with an advisory council dealing with the medical follow-up set up by French Polynesia President Oscar Temaru in connection with the former nuclear tests. A French government official dealing with nuclear safety and protection against radiation from Defense Ministry activities is due to arrive in Tahiti at the end of June to meet with the civilian population. During that visit, the latest data evaluations on radioactive fallout from the atmospheric nuclear tests will be communicated, the High Commissioner's Office said. The French Defense Ministry plans to publish during the second semester of this year a complete work on the radiological aspects of the nuclear tests, dealing with such subjects as safety, the environment and public health. SOURCE - Tahitipresse |
