French Polynesia anti-nuclear group criticises France for ‘downplaying’ impact of weapons tests in new report

Anti-nuclear organisation Association 193 has repeatedly accused France of refusing to recognise the impact of the tests, instead using propaganda to say they were clean or a thing of the past. Photo / Facebook - Association 193

By Walter Zweifel of RNZ

French Polynesia’s anti-nuclear organisation Association 193 has criticised the latest French report about the impact of nuclear weapons tests.

France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research evaluated additional declassified data from the tests at Mururoa and found that radiation from them had a minimal role in causing thyroid cancer.

The association’s president, Father Auguste Uebe-Carlson, told the AFP news agency there was a tendency by the French state and the institute to minimise the impact of nuclear fallout.

He said the French Committee for the Compensation of Victims of Nuclear Tests refused to recognise the files of victims born after 1974, when the military carried out its last atmospheric test.

But Uebe-Carlson said there was an argument to also recognise cancer sufferers born since 1974.

He said the institute would one day have to explain why there were so many cancers in French Polynesia.

He has repeatedly accused France of refusing to recognise the impact of the tests, instead using propaganda to say they were clean or a thing of the past.

He said health problems were now being attributed to poor diet and lifestyle choices.

Three years ago he conducted a survey in Mangareva, near the former weapons test sites, and found that from 1966 onwards all families reported cases of stillborn babies.

Call for release of scientific data

The president of the test veterans’ organisation Moruroa e tatou said the release of the scientific data was not enough.

Hiro Tefaarere told La Premiere it was “absolutely necessary” for his organisation to get from the French state the register of cancer patients and cancer deaths during the testing period.

He said it was “imperative” these files be given to Moruroa e tatou.

Tefaarere said this research, if the state agreed to release it, would give his organisation the essential elements to consolidate the complaints that have been filed.

President to take report into account

Assembly of French Polynesia member Hinamoeura Cross, who suffers from leukaemia, said she was outraged that reports were still being published downplaying the tests’ effects.

French Polynesia’s new president, Moetai Brotherson, said he would take the latest report into account when entering discussions with the French Government.

French Polynesia has for years been trying to get France to reimburse it for spending on cancer sufferers. Its social security agency CPS said that since 1995 it had spent almost US$1 billion (NZ$1.59b) to treat 10,000 people suffering from cancer as the result of radiation from the tests.

In 2010, France recognised for the first time that the tests had had an impact on the environment and health, paving the way for compensation.

Between 1966 and 1996, France carried out almost 200 tests in the South Pacific, involving more than 100,000 military and civilian personnel.

It has refused to apologise for the tests, but President Emmanuel Macron said France owed “a debt” to French Polynesia’s people.