Papeete (AFP)

Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday in Papeete (Wednesday morning in Paris) that France had "a debt" to French Polynesia for having carried out nearly 200 nuclear tests in the Pacific for 30 years, until 1996.

"I assume and want the truth and transparency with you," said the Head of State, addressing Polynesian officials on the last day of his first visit to the immense archipelago.

Recognizing that this sensitive issue affected "confidence" between Papeete and Paris, he announced in particular that the victims of these tests, some of whom suffer from cancer, should be better compensated.

"The nation has a debt towards French Polynesia. This debt is the fact of having housed these tests, in particular those between 1966 and 1974, which we can absolutely not say that they were clean," said he declared, applauded by the audience.

After carrying out 17 nuclear tests in the Sahara, France transferred in 1966 its firing range to French Polynesia, on the atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa, where it carried out 193 new tests in 30 years, first atmospheric, then underground.

The last took place on January 27, 1996 after President Jacques Chirac's decision to resume shooting despite the moratorium decided three years earlier by his predecessor, François Mitterrand.

"I want to tell you clearly that the soldiers who made them did not lie to you. They took the same risks," said Emmanuel Macron.

But, he added, "I think it's true that we wouldn't have done these same tests in the Creuse or in Brittany. We did it here because it was further away, because that it was lost in the middle of the Pacific ".

However, he declared to "fully assume" and defended the choice made by General de Gaulle and then pursued by his successors to provide France with nuclear weapons, in particular to protect French Polynesia.

- "Demagoguery" -

In his speech, the president did not utter the word of "forgiveness" which was demanded by associations of victims or the independence leader Oscar Temaru, at the initiative of a demonstration that brought together several thousand people in the streets of Papeete July 18.

"There is no progress in this speech, only demagoguery (...) The lies of the State continue", lamented Father Auguste Uebe-Carlson, president of the association 193, on the Polynesia channel 1ere .

But the president of Polynesia, the autonomist Edouard Fritsch, welcomed the fact that Emmanuel Macron wanted "finally that the truth be put on the table" after "25 years of silence".

On the sensitive issue of compensation, Emmanuel Macron announced an improvement in the processing of cases while the number of people compensated for having contracted radiation-induced diseases remains "particularly low", according to the overseas minister Sébastien Lecornu.

He also indicated that the archives on the tests "will be open", except for the most sensitive military data.

These announcements come five years after the recognition, by President François Hollande during a visit in 2016, of the "impact on the environment and health" of 30 years of testing. He then made a series of commitments, some of which have not yet materialized, such as the opening of a Nuclear Test Memory Center.

In his speech started and concluded with a few words in Polynesian, Emmanuel Macron praised the "unique intimate sensitive pact between the Republic and French Polynesia" despite the "dark hours and the bites of history". "There is one at the same time" because "you are both deeply Polynesian and deeply patriotic", he added, assuring that he would defend their will to "resist" to "revive and transmit" their culture.

On the economic front, Emmanuel Macron announced a loan of 300 million in support of investments, in particular to develop the airline company Air Tahiti Nui, as well as new tax exemption measures.

Recalling that the State devoted more than a billion and a half euros to Polynesia each year, he said that more than 600 million had been committed to deal with the Covid-19 crisis.

After visiting the Papeete hospital on his arrival on Saturday, he again urged the Polynesians to be vaccinated, "the only way out" of the crisis, stressing that of the 230,000 doses sent to the archipelago, 110,000 were still available.

Emmanuel Macron will chair the Council of Ministers by videoconference, scheduled for 1 p.m., from the plane that will bring him back to France.

© 2021 AFP