"No to impunity".
It is under this slogan that thousands of Martiniquans mobilized, Saturday, February 27, against the threat of prescription in the file of chlordecone.
This insecticide, authorized for 21 years in the banana plantations of the West Indies, polluted water and agricultural production - and a parliamentary report affirmed, in 2019, that the State was "primarily responsible" for this pollution.
"We had never seen such an important demonstration since 2009", twelve years after the general strike against the high cost of living, said Francis Carole, president of the Party for the Liberation of Martinique (Palima) and executive adviser in charge of health affairs of the local authority.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 people demonstrated according to the organizers, 5,000 according to the police, some wearing anti-Covid masks, others not, like Francis Carole.
"The Martinicans have mobilized by the thousands", underlined this various left leader, to respond "to the spitting that the French State has launched at us, namely the threat of prescription" in the file of this insecticide which infiltrated the soils of the island for hundreds of years.
Toxicity and persistence in the environment
Drums, "chachas" (maracas), Lambi conch (shell symbol of the island which also serves as an instrument) and songs: the seriousness of the subject did not prevent the gathering from taking place in a festive atmosphere.
"Prescription dapré yo, di prefet has random planted bannan" ("according to them there will be prescription, tell the prefect to go and plant bananas"), the demonstrators sang in particular, taking up the tune of a song from carnival, illegal this year due to Covid-19.
>> To review, our Focus: Chlordecone, poison for land and bodies in Martinique
Without forgetting, however, the slogan - "no to impunity" - of the forty associations, unions and political parties of the island which had called for the rally.
The insecticide was authorized between 1972 and 1993 in the banana plantations of the Antilles, polluting water and agricultural production, while its toxicity and its persistent power in the environment had been known since the 1960s.
"They poison us, they kill us," proclaims a banner of the CGT Martinique held by two women dressed in red, while others had opted for red, green or black, colors of the flag adopted by a majority of Martiniquais.
General contamination of adult populations
More than 90% of the adult population in Guadeloupe and Martinique is contaminated by chlordecone, according to Public Health France, and the West Indian populations have one of the highest incidence rate of prostate cancer in the world.
On a sign, a protester calculated "the Martinican bill" for the French state: "Annual security ceiling (41,136 euros) X affected population (370,000 inhabitants) X 500 years = 7.6 billion euros".
Several associations from Martinique and Guadeloupe were heard on January 20 and 21 by the Parisian examining magistrates in charge of the case.
As early as 2006, they had filed a complaint against the poisoning of their islands with chlordecone.
But during this hearing, the investigating judges in charge of the case since 2008 explained to the plaintiffs that there could be statute of limitations and that the case could lead to a dismissal.
An option that shocked public opinion and led to this great mobilization this Saturday.
For Harry Bauchaint, a member of the Péyi-A political movement, "the government has allegedly recognized some action but has done nothing, and little by little is withdrawing".
"The government must protect all French people," he recalls.
"A wake-up call, but it's late"
If the mobilization, in the current health context, is a great success in Martinique, it is more timid in Guadeloupe where 300 people, according to the local CGT, the organizing union, participated in a simultaneous demonstration in Capesterre-Belle-Eau.
Lawyer Harry Durimel, the mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre at the forefront of this fight, was not present.
"I am delighted that there is a revival but it is late, it is very sad," he lamented to AFP.
In Paris, the site of the third simultaneous demonstration, just over 200 people gathered at Place de la République.
"The whole of French society should take up the cause so that there is no prescription," Toni Mango, head of Kolèktif Doubout Pou Gwadloup, told AFP. catalyst for mobilization.
"This is a first call, a first demonstration since the Covid-19 and we will not stop there".
With AFP
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