Papeete (AFP)
Nearly 2,500 Polynesians took to the streets of the capital, Papeete, in Tahiti on Friday to commemorate the anniversary of the first nuclear test, Aldebaran, carried out on July 2, 1966 on the atoll of Moruroa (or Mururoa).
This event, which takes place every year on this French territory in the Pacific where France has carried out nearly 200 nuclear tests, experienced record attendance when a round table discussion on the consequences of nuclear tests in French Polynesia had just ended in Paris. .
"So + Manu + you assume?", Asked in particular a banner, while President Emmanuel Macron is expected on July 25 in Polynesia.
According to the President of French Polynesia, Edouard Fritch, the Head of State should notably announce an opening of the archives on this occasion.
The associations always ask France to apologize for the tests carried out and its social, health and environmental consequences.
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Some even hope to reactivate the movement with a view to filing a complaint for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court in The Hague on July 17 on the occasion of the anniversary of the Centaur shooting in 1974 which, via rains , contaminated the island of Tahiti.
The Minister in charge of Memory and Veterans, Geneviève Darrieusseq, on Thursday excluded any forgiveness from France, affirming to AFP that there had been "no lie of State", on the 193 tests nuclear (including 46 atmospheric) carried out in French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996.
In Papeete, the demonstrators responded to the call of the Moruroa e tatou association, which works locally for the recognition and compensation of personnel, civilians and soldiers, victims of radiation-induced diseases after atmospheric tests.
The Protestant Ma'ohi Church had also called for the demonstration, just like the independence party, the Tavini huiraatira or even Gaston Flosse, former president of this French territory, who nevertheless supported these same tests when he was in power.
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Some associations are even considering filing a complaint for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The associations are also asking that the costs incurred by the Social Security Fund (the local state health insurance) to treat people with radiation-induced diseases be reimbursed by the state, with retroactive effect.
"This is a request that seems legitimate to the victims who have been the subject of compensation by Civen", the Compensation Committee for victims of nuclear tests, said Friday in Paris the Minister of Health Olivier Véran .
Mr. Véran is also committed to funding research on these cancers, without going as far as the creation of a Cancer Institute in Tahiti, a project which would however be on the right track according to Patricia Grand, Honorary President of the league against cancer in Polynesia.
© 2021 AFP