[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 122 (Wednesday, July 26, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7791-H7792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTINGS

  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I want to share with my colleagues 
this 

[[Page H7792]]
morning a most serious problem now confronted by the 22 nations and 
territories of the Pacific Region--the Government of France plans to 
explode 8 more nuclear bombs in about 8 weeks, each 10 times more 
powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan.
  Mr. Speaker, the millions of men, women, and children who live in the 
Pacific are sick and tired of this region being used as a testing 
ground for nuclear explosions. And it makes me sad to see the President 
of France, charging like a bulldozer--totally disregarding the 
environmental concerns of the millions of people living in the 
Pacific--and I ask the American people and my colleagues to send a 
strong message to the French Government by not buying French goods and 
products as a symbolic gesture to get President Chirac off his high 
horse, and stop this madness by canceling the nuclear explosions--and 
prove to the world what real leadership is all about. I know the people 
of the Pacific will be grateful.
  Mr. Speaker, 70 percent of the people of France do not want their 
government to conduct nuclear explosions in French Polynesia. The 
countries of the Pacific, Asia, and Europe don't support it.
  What madness, Mr. Speaker. What madness.
               [From the Washington Post, July 12, 1995]

                      Why Not Atom Tests in France

       France's unwise decision to resume nuclear testing was an 
     invitation to the kind of protests and denunciations being 
     generated by Greenpeace's skillful demonstration of political 
     theater. But even before Greenpeace set sail for the test 
     site, several Pacific countries had vehemently objected to 
     France's intention of carrying out the explosions at a 
     Pacific atoll. The most cutting comment came from Japan's 
     prime minister, Tomiichi Murayama. At a recent meeting in 
     Cannes the newly installed president of France, Jacques 
     Chirac, confidently explained to him that the tests will be 
     entirely safe. If they are so safe, Mr. Murayama replied, why 
     doesn't Mr. Chirac hold them in France?
       The dangers of these tests to France are, in fact, 
     substantial. The chances of physical damage and the release 
     of radioactivity to the atmosphere are very low. But the 
     symbolism of a European country holding its tests on the 
     other side of the earth, in a vestige of its former colonial 
     empire, is proving immensely damaging to France's standing 
     among its friends in Asia.
       France says that it needs to carry out the tests to ensure 
     the reliability of its nuclear weapons. Those weapons, like 
     most of the American nuclear armory, were developed to 
     counter a threat from a power that has collapsed. The great 
     threat now, to France and the rest of the world, is the 
     possibility of nuclear bombs in the hands of reckless and 
     aggressive governments elsewhere. North Korea, Iraq and Iran 
     head the list of possibilities. The tests will strengthen 
     France's international prestige, in the view of many French 
     politicians, by reminding others that it possesses these 
     weapons. But in less stable and non-democratic countries, 
     there are many dictators, juntas and nationalist fanatics who 
     similarly aspire to improve their countries' standing in the 
     world.
       The international effort to discourage the spread of 
     nuclear weapons is a fragile enterprise, depending mainly on 
     trust and goodwill. But over the past half-century, the 
     effort has been remarkably and unexpectedly successful. It 
     depends on a bargain in which the nuclear powers agree to 
     move toward nuclear disarmament at some indefinite point in 
     the future, and in the meantime to avoid flaunting these 
     portentous weapons or to use them merely for displays of one-
     upmanship. That's the understanding that France is now 
     undermining. The harassment by Greenpeace is the least of the 
     costs that these misguided tests will exact.
               [From the Washington Post, July 11, 1995]

                  France To Continue Nuclear Countdown

                         (By Christopher Burns)

       Paris, July 10.--France insisted today that it will go 
     ahead with nuclear-weapons tests in the South Pacific 
     following its seizure of an environmental protest ship in the 
     area and despite protests from demonstrators and governments 
     around the world.
       French commandos used tear gas Sunday to board and take 
     commend of the Rainbow Warrior II, flagship of the 
     environmental protection organization Greenpeace--an action 
     the group called ``an outrage against peaceful protest and 
     world opinion.''
       The timing of the boarding--which took place in French 
     waters near Mururoa atoll, site of the planned nuclear 
     tests--was especially sensitive because it was just 10 years 
     ago that French agents blew up the original Rainbow Warrior 
     in New Zealand, killing one person aboard.
       Today, as French warships escorted the 180-foot vessel away 
     from Mururoa, two Greenpeace members using a motorized dinghy 
     evaded French patrols and scaled a drilling rig at the test 
     site to protest the eight planned nuclear blasts, but 
     security forces removed them within 20 minutes. The rig is 
     used to bore test shafts into the ocean bed below the atoll.
       Meanwhile, in London, Bonn, Hong Kong and other cities, 
     anti-nuclear protesters carried effigies of French President 
     Jacques Chirac, chained themselves to the gates of French 
     diplomatic compounds or held rallies to express their anger 
     over the tests, scheduled to begin in September. In 
     Washington, Greenpeace activists chained themselves to the 
     gates of the French ambassador's residence, unfurled banners 
     and shouted slogans denouncing the tests.
       But French officials shrugged off the outcry, declaring 
     that its seizure of the Greenpeace ship was justified. 
     ``Faced with operations that violate the law, we do what is 
     needed to ensure that the law is respected, and we will 
     continue to do so,'' Prime Minister Alain Juppe said.
       In Aukland, Greenpeace's New Zealand campaign director said 
     the Rainbow Warrior II had planned to protest by sailing 
     peacefully into the 12-mile exclusion zone around the atoll. 
     But the French high commissioner in French Polynesia, Paul 
     Ronciere, justifying seizure of the vessel, said the crew 
     wanted to ``run the ship aground on a reef or on a beach'' to 
     stymie French test plans.
       Juppe added in his statement that France will take whatever 
     measures are needed to ensure that its territorial waters are 
     respected. He said Chirac's pledge to conduct the tests as a 
     means of maintaining France's nuclear capability would be 
     carried out ``because it is in the higher interest of the 
     country.'' France says that when the tests are completed it 
     will be ready to sign a multi-national test ban treaty now 
     being negotiated.
       French leftists and environmentalists criticized Chirac's 
     new conservative government over the tests, although there 
     were no major protests in Paris. Indeed, the French public 
     seems tacitly to support the government's nuclear policies.
       But France came under increasing criticism today from many 
     of its allies, most of whom have opposed the tests.
       In Washington, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns 
     said: ``As we stated previously, we regret very much the 
     French decision to resume nuclear testing, and we continue to 
     urge all nuclear power's including France, to join in a 
     global moratorium as we work to complete the comprehensive 
     test ban treaty at the earliest possible time.''
       Australia, a major critic of the tests, has signaled that 
     it will seek Japanese support in pressuring Paris to call 
     them off. On the seizure of the Rainbow Warrior II, Deputy 
     Prime Minister Kim Beazley called the French action ``a 
     disproportionate response,'' as assessment echoed by New 
     Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger, who said the French had 
     gone ``over the top.''
       Chirac is scheduled to meet German Chancellor Helmut Kohl 
     in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday and officials in Bonn said 
     the chancellor would bring up the issue of the tests ``and 
     their effect on public debate in Germany.'' A recent poll 
     showed that 95 percent of Germans oppose the tests.
     

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