[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 137 (Wednesday, September 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8591-H8593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PROTESTING FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTING IN THE PACIFIC

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from American Samoa [Mr. Faleomavaega] is 
recognized for 30 minutes.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from New 
Jersey for yielding me this time and I really appreciate his 
consideration for allowing me to share with my colleagues and the 
American people what is happening in French Polynesia, the eve of the 
French nuclear testing catastrophe that I feel that what is happening 
now.
  Mr. Speaker, yesterday France detonated a nuclear bomb in French 
Polynesia, defying worldwide opinion which 

[[Page H 8592]]
has uniformly condemned their resumption of nuclear testing. Mr. 
Speaker, about 2 hours ago, I personally received word from Tahiti's 
most prominent leader against nuclear testing, the mayor of the village 
of Take Ah Ah, Mr. Temaru.
  My colleagues, as I speak, Tahiti is burning right now. Tahiti is at 
a standstill. The only airport in Tahiti is burning. As a result of 
France's explosion of the nuclear bomb in Mururoa Atoll right now, 
Tahitians attempted to hold a peaceful demonstration and occupy the 
only airport on the island. As a result, a French military hurled 
grenades and starting shooting at these unarmed Tahitians.
  Mr. Speaker, what arrogance. Several Tahitians are wounded and Mr. 
Temaru is making an appeal to the world community of what is happening 
because the French Government right now is making every attempt to 
suppress what is happening right now on this island in French 
Polynesia.
  Mr. Speaker, there are several good reasons why France should not, 
does not need to explode eight more nuclear bombs under the atoll, 
Mururoa Atoll. First, France has already exploded 163 nuclear bombs in 
the atmosphere on and under the Mururoa Atoll. The nuclear 
contamination under this atoll is equivalent to several times the 
contamination of the city of Chernobyl in Russia. And let me share with 
my colleagues and the American people what the atoll looks like, Mr. 
Speaker, if I can get a focus on this. And this is what the atoll looks 
like. This is a French document showing the areas of the atoll that is 
contaminated. And despite all this publicity that some of the people 
have seen, the President of French Polynesia swimming on the beach, it 
is a total misinformation given to the world community, and the fact is 
this atoll is contaminated, Mr. Speaker. And it could be 10 years from 
now, 50 years from now, if this atoll starts leaking nuclear 
contamination, the people of the Pacific are going to be the victims 
while Mr. Chirac continues to drink his wine in Paris.
  Mr. Speaker, France currently has the third largest supply of nuclear 
bombs in the world. Nuclear bombs are weapons of genocide, Mr. Speaker. 
Nuclear bombs destroy everything and anything on sight, including human 
beings. Mr. Speaker, who are the French going to explode these bombs 
against?
  The fact that Europe is united, we have a NATO
   organization. And the fact that Chirac says that this is in the 
national interest of France's nuclear deterrent force system, what 
about our friends in Germany? Should they then also be concerned that 
this is the kind of thing that France is opening up a complete can of 
worms. What is there for us then to tell Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan, that 
they have no right to conduct nuclear testing for their national 
interest? What hypocrisy, Mr. Speaker, what hypocrisy.

  Mr. Speaker, after exploding over 1,000 nuclear bombs, the United 
States, who happens to be an ally of France, has already offered the 
technology for which France seeks to achieve by exploding 8 more 
nuclear bombs. Each nuclear bomb with a force of up to 10 times, 10 
times more powerful than the nuclear bomb that we dropped on Hiroshima 
50 years ago. And that bomb, Mr. Speaker, incidentally, killed 120,000 
men, women, and children in that city with an additional 80,000 people 
who died as a result of radioactive contamination and illnesses.
  Mr. Speaker, three major newspapers and several others in the United 
States, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles 
Times, all called for President Chirac to stop the nuclear tests in the 
South Pacific. The U.S. Senate has also passed a resolution under the 
leadership of U.S Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii that calls upon the 
Government of France not to conduct these tests. In the House of 
Representatives, the Committee on International Relations unanimously 
adopted a resolution again calling upon the Government of France not to 
conduct these nuclear testings. Mr. Speaker, President Clinton has also 
issued a strong statement last month to call upon all nations, 
especially France and China, for a complete ban on termination or 
termination of nuclear bomb testings.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States alone has enough nuclear bombs to blow 
this whole planet 10 times over. The notion that the nation with more 
nuclear bombs will win the next nuclear war is sheer nonsense and total 
madness of what this world is doing now. Mr. Speaker, if France does 
not set a good example by canceling nuclear bomb tests, what is there 
is stop countries like Iran and Iraq and Pakistan and India to also 
conduct nuclear bomb tests and also either purchase or develop their 
own nuclear arsenals? What madness, Mr. Speaker. When is this madness 
going to end?
  I personally visited Muruoa Atoll 3 years ago, Mr. Speaker, and I 
must say in all candor, the military officials of France personally 
told me that that atoll is contaminated. The atoll is contaminated. Mr. 
Speaker, in appealing to the people of French Polynesia and to the 
leaders of French Polynesia, who are in constant contact with Mr. 
Chirac, one day the children of the Pacific and their children's 
children are either going to live as a free people or as victims of 
nuclear contamination from the Pacific Ocean which has served our 
Polynesian people for centuries as a highway system and also the source 
of all forms of life where man, the animals, and plants have coexisted.
  Mr. Speaker, this is truly a sad commentary to make in a democratic 
country like France to totally disregard the sincere concerns of some 
27 million men, women, and children who live in the Pacific who have no 
hatred or animosity toward the people of France. The people of the 
Pacific only want to live without fear of nuclear contamination in 
their vast ocean of the marine environment. Is this asking too much of 
President Chirac who, maybe 10 or 50 years from now, when we are going 
to be all gone but our children's children will then ask how can the 
Government of France allow such nuclear contamination to happen?
  Mr. Speaker, I am reminded of what a great western leader once said. 
He may have even been a French philosopher, for all I know. But he said 
the only real reason why evil continues to exist in this world is 
because good men do nothing. And I call upon President Clinton and the 
State Department, this is the French Government that decided years ago, 
this is the very government that decided years ago to withdraw its 
membership from NATO. This is the same French Government that demanded 
that all United States forces leave France within 60 days. And as I 
recall history, Mr. Speaker, our President, through Secretary of State 
Dean Rusk, personally hand-carried a letter and to let President De 
Gaulle know in verbatim that also included the 10,000 bodies of 
Americans who are buried in France who were there to fight, to liberate 
France from Nazi Germany.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the same French Government which 50 years ago by 
forced deportation of 75,000 French citizens to Nazi concentration 
camps and as a result only 1,000 of those French citizens survived.
 What a shame, Mr. Speaker, what a shame. And this is the same French 
Government who looks upon the 200,000 people who live in French 
Polynesia and say yes, they are expendable. They are expendable because 
Paris is 15,000 miles away. The people of France have no concern 
whatsoever about the leakages of the nuclear contamination. The 200,000 
men, women, and children who live in French Polynesia, Mr. Speaker, are 
deemed expendable by the Chirac government's policy to continue these 
nuclear bomb explosions, which is madness.

  Mr. Speaker, President Chirac drinks his wine. The island of Tahiti 
is burning right now, at this moment. The total, the whole island is at 
a standstill. There are blockades now taken at the airport. The airport 
is burning. As I said, Mr. Speaker, it is just a beginning.
  What arrogance, Mr. Speaker. What arrogance on the part of a 
democratic country like France. It is the best form of true colonialism 
in its worst example, and I cannot believe that here a democracy of the 
world is setting the worst example to the rest of the world. When we 
talk about human rights, when we talk about liberty, when we talk about 
freedom and these people are suffering and are victims because of this 
stupid and asinine policy of the French Government to explode nuclear 
bombs in the Pacific. And the leaders of the world, the community, the 
world 

[[Page H 8593]]
said if it is so safe, Mr. Chirac, why do you not explode it in France?
  We do not need this madness. We do not need this nightmare. I might 
also, Mr. Speaker, there are only 1.2 million American citizens living 
in the State of Hawaii. On the State of Hawaii, these are American 
citizens, Mr. Speaker, and I appeal again to the President, to the 
State Department, let us not be submissive. Let us not be passive to 
allow President Chirac to make these kinds of decisions that bring 
tension, that bring trouble and complete disregard for the concerns and 
the lives and the health and the welfare of the people who live in the 
Pacific.
  Mr. Speaker, I was in Tahiti just 2 days ago. Never have I witnessed 
what colonialism really means in the eve of the 21st century. Tahitian 
people are the least educated. I learned that only a handful, this is 
after 150 years of French colonialism, I was told by the Tahitians 
there are less than 10 Tahitians that were ever educated in the field 
of law. What a shame. What a shame, Mr. Speaker.
  I was joined by the Minister of Finance. The Minister of Finance, Mr. 
Takemura of Japan, quotes that France is losing respect from nations 
all over the world because of this stupid policy of exploding nuclear 
bombs in the Pacific. I might also note, Mr. Speaker, that there were 
parliamentarians from about 20 countries all over the world who were 
there to lend their support in strong opposition to this stupid policy 
that President Chirac has established to continue these stupid nuclear 
tests that we do not need in this world. And why are we reinventing the 
wheel? We have the technology. We offered it to President Chirac. But 
he does not want to accept it. What foolishness. And if it is so much 
to say that President Chirac can get away with this, then, Mr. Speaker, 
there is no justification for the United States and for France to tell 
India, to tell Pakistan, to tell Iraq, to tell Iran, you cannot 
experiment with nuclear bombs. That is nonsense and I urge my 
colleagues, I urge the American people to help, to help the 200,000 
Polynesian Tahitians who are the victims.
  I might also add, Mr. Speaker, the media has done a disservice to 
this whole issue of nuclear bomb testings seeking only the opinions of 
people living in Europe, seeking only the opinions of policymakers but 
never looking at the situation of the victims, the people, the 
indigenous people who live in these islands, never, never regarding 
their concerns and their needs to live. And that is all they want, Mr. 
Speaker.
  They just want to simply live as a people whose lives depend on the 
ocean, whose lives depend on these atolls and these islands, and I just 
cannot believe this, Mr. Speaker. I cannot believe this is at the eve 
of the 21st century we have a country like France, supposedly a 
democracy, practicing the worst evils of colonialism against these 
200,000 people that live there and all they want in life is just to 
live in peace. Is that asking too much of President Chirac? Oh, no. 
President Chirac wants to so that he is a big man now.
                              {time}  2015

  He is macho; he is De Gaulle the second. He wants to show that he has 
got muscle there.
  I hope Chancellor Kohl will take notice of this fact. If I were a 
German citizen, I would be a little concerned about President Chirac's 
ability to press that nuclear button.
  Why should Germany also not have nuclear deterrent force? I say, in 
every justification, Germany should have that same, but this is a farce 
that is going on as far as nuclear testing is concerned.
  Why should France be the only one? And other democratic countries in 
Europe, they should also have the same technology. This is what France 
has done.
  Chirac is the leading proponent of nuclear proliferation. What France 
has done yesterday, it has opened up the nuclear arms tests again, and 
I call upon President Clinton and Secretary Christopher, let us not be 
passive about this. This thing concerns the lives and the welfare of 
the American people just as much as the poor victims who are caught 
between this whole episode on how one man, not the goodness of the 
French people, one man and the terrible policy that his government has 
established since he has been in office for the first 100 days. I 
cannot believe this, Mr. Speaker; the worst example of colonialism on 
the eve of the 21st century that we find a democratic country like 
France totally disregarding world opinion, totally disregarding the 
wishes of the local people who are going to be most impacted. Yet this 
man still went ahead and exploded that nuclear bomb yesterday. I cannot 
believe this, Mr. Speaker.
  I ask the American people, you know, there is one thing I have 
learned about American tradition. Mr. Speaker, they always like to 
support the underdog because we were the underdogs when we were 
colonies and happened to be going against the greatest power, that 
happened to be the British empire. Who would dare challenge the British 
empire for its form of colonialism? This exactly is the situation 
facing the Polynesians, 200,000 people who do not have guns, grenades. 
They are still paddling canoes to make a living, enjoying what nature 
has given them, enjoying what God has given them.
  Is it asking so much that these people want to live as any others, 
Mr. Speaker? Mr. Speaker, what nonsense, what madness that the 
President of France
 has the gall, the mitigated gall, to press that nuclear button 
yesterday.

  If the Tahitians get killed and wounded, if that place is burning, I 
say this should be on the head of President Chirac, that he should be 
taking full responsibility for this.
  I call upon my colleagues and the goodness of the American people, do 
not buy French products, do not buy French perfume, do not by French 
wines. Send a strong message to President Chirac that the world 
community and the American people support the victims of this whole 
thing, and this is the only way that that man is going to listen to the 
wishes of the world community.
  Mr. Speaker, 63 percent of the people of France do not support 
nuclear testing. The vast majority of the Tahitian Polynesians, 200,000 
men, women, and children who live in this area of the world, do not 
support nuclear testing.
  Yet because of the strong military lobby, the corporate lobby in 
France that probably supported President Chirac during his campaign, is 
getting a payoff. That is what this is about. The corporate lobby in 
France is getting a payoff because of its support of President Chirac 
in his election campaign this year. What a shame, Mr. Speaker. What a 
shame this is the kind of policy the President of France adheres to 
despite the wishes not only of the people, the victims who live in 
these islands; they are getting nothing but the worst example of 
colonialism in the middle of the 20th century.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, I appeal to my colleagues and the American 
people, do not buy French foods, do not buy French products. This is 
the only way that President Chirac is going to listen to common sense, 
listen and be a little more sensitive to the wishes of the people who 
live there.
  Mr. Speaker, again I thank my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey.
  

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