SYDNEY — Roland Oldham, president of MoruroeTatou, an association of former workers from the French nuclear test sites of Moruroa and Tangataufa, told a meeting on August 3 that no Tahitian worker had yet received compensation for their part in the 30-year nuclear testing program conducted by the French government.
Carah Ong, director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Advocacy and Research, and Phyllis Bennis from the US Institute of Policy Studies also addressed Hiroshima Day Committee-sponsored meeting, which was attended by 50 people.
Oldham recounted how the US, British and French governments had used South Pacific islands to carry out nuclear-weapons tests. "They considered the Pacific a desert, just like they did Algeria and Nevada", he said.
The French government to this day insists the tests in Tahiti were "clean", said Oldham, but 80% of the 4200 people living on Moruroa and Tangataufa have serious health problems.
Pip Hinman
From Green Left Weekly, August 10, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.