[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 99 (Friday, June 16, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTING

  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include 
extraneous matter.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, let me cry out: ``Shame on you the 
government of France. * * *''
  Mr. Speaker, 27 million people in the Pacific cry out: ``Shame on you 
the government of France * * * for your arrogance to explode eight 
nuclear bombs in the South Pacific starting this September.''
  Mr. Speaker, the 178 countries who signed the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty cry out: ``Shame on you France * * *.''
  Mr. Speaker, may I suggest to President Jacques Chirac, if he wants 
to develop France's nuclear bomb trigger device for computer simulation 
technology, then develop it on a computer--not in the South Pacific, 
not on people and not on mother Earth. Explode your eight nuclear bombs 
in Paris and along the rural and farm areas of France, and see if the 
citizens of France will support you.
  Mr. Speaker, the Government of France currently has:
  The world's third largest stockpile of nuclear bombs;
  The fourth largest navy in the world; and
  Twenty years of experience in conducting nuclear bomb explosions in 
the atmosphere and under water in the South Pacific. Mr. Speaker, let 
me tell you about the trigger device that the French Government wants 
to develop for its nuclear bomb explosions. The nuclear trigger is a 
nuclear bomb itself and is 100 times more powerful than the nuclear 
bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If the nuclear bomb trigger is 
100 times more powerful than what was dropped on Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki, can you imagine, Mr. Speaker, the nuclear explosion that will 
come after that? What madness, Mr. Speaker.
  Why not drop your eight nuclear bombs under the Arc de Triomphe--a 
prided possession for the people of France, because, the island nations 
of the South Pacific are the prided possessions of the 27 million 
people who live, eat, drink, and swim in that part of the world.
  I say to the military establishment of France and to the President of 
France--in the words of Bernard Clavel, the popular novelist, ``You are 
the shame of France * * * you are the shame of France.''
  Mr. Speaker, I include the following newspaper articles for the 
Record:

                  [From the Samoa News, June 15, 1995]

       South Pacific Condemns Decision to Resume Nuclear Testing

       Sydney, Australia.--Countries of the South Pacific today 
     sharply condemned France's decision to resume nuclear weapons 
     testing in the region in September.
       New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon bitterly accused 
     French President Jacques Chirac of ``Napoleonic-De Gaulle 
     arrogance.''
       An angry Prime Minister Jim Bolger complained that France 
     had directly insulted his country which sent troops to fight 
     two world wars on French soil. ``New Zealanders left the 
     South Pacific to defend France and to help France reclaim its 
     land,'' Bolger said in a vitriolic attack in Parliament. ``Is 
     that our thanks--the fingers sign because the French military 
     want bigger playthings?''
       Bolger said France and New Zealand had been ``friends for 
     generations and in one act today France decided to hell with 
     the friendship.'' ``It is not too late for France to 
     reconsider its position. There is a great deal at stake,'' 
     Bolger said. Both Australia and New Zealand said they will 
     downscale or freeze defense links with France in protest.
       Japan's Foreign Minister Yohei Kono also criticized the 
     French decision to resume testing, saying it violates the 
     trust of the non-nuclear community. Kono expressed his 
     disapproval in a telephone call to his French counterpart.
       The Philippines and Indonesia joined other Asia-Pacific 
     critics of France's decision.
                                                                    ____


                [From the New York Times, June 15, 1995]

     France Planning Nuclear Tests Despite Opposition, Chirac Says

                         (By Craig R. Whitney)

       Paris, June 13.--President Jacques Chirac of France, 
     defying international opposition to resumption of French 
     nuclear testing in the South Pacific, said tonight that 
     France would resume underground weapons tests in September 
     but would stop them once and for all by the end of May 1996.
       Mr. Chirac's predecessor, Francois Mitterrand, declared a 
     moratorium on nuclear tests in April 1992.
       ``Unfortunately, we stopped a little too early,'' Mr. 
     Chirac said, on the eve of a trip to Washington and New York 
     to confer with President Clinton and Secretary General 
     Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations.
       In a news conference in Elysee Palace, Mr. Chirac described 
     his decision as ``irrevocable.'' He said the eight planned 
     tests would have ``no ecological consequences'' and would 
     complete a series, interrupted three years ago, intended to 
     calibrate equipment that would allow computer simulations in 
     future tests of the reliability of the French independent 
     nuclear deterrent.
       Mr. Chirac had been telegraphing his decision for some 
     time, but it could influence the debate in the United States. 
     Some military experts in Washington would like the Clinton 
     Administration to make a few more tests before a permanent 
     ban in a treaty that France, the United States and other 
     countries have pledged to sign next year.
       Adm. Jacques Lanxade, the French armed forces chief of 
     staff, reported to Mr. Mitterrand a year ago that the 
     military needed to make a few more tests to insure the 
     reliability of France's nuclear deterrent, according to 
     Defense Minister Charles Millon. But Mr. Mitterrand declined 
     to lift the moratorium.
       Mr. Chirac, a conservative who succeeded Mr. Mitterrand on 
     May 7, denounced Mr. Mitterrand's action in 1992 as ``a 
     unilateral disarmament decision.''
       France's independent nuclear deterrent, largely submarine-
     based, has been the keystone of its independent national 
     defense strategy since the early 1960's, when Gen. Charles de 
     Gaulle decided that dependence on the United States nuclear 
     deterrent was unacceptable.

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