Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

French Polynesian environmentalists gear up for French defence minister visit

Posted at 08:08 on 02 December, 2009 UTC

French Polynesia’s environmental groups and its nuclear test veterans organisation say there can be no talk about the nuclear issue without reference to the environment.

The organisations called a news conference two weeks before the French defence minister, Herve Morin, is due in Tahiti.

They say they don’t want the minister to tell them that the fallout from the weapons tests was negligible.

They say in some cases the fallout was 1,000 times higher than the safe limit.

They say the Moruroa and Fangataufa test sites have remained off-limits more than a dozens years after testing stopped.

One veteran John Doom, told Tahitipresse that the French military authorities still behave like colonialists, adding it is also about time to denounce the attitude of many local politicians who have been in collusion for 40 years.