[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H959-H963]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           IMPLICATIONS OF FRANCE'S NUCLEAR TESTING NIGHTMARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Young of Florida). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from American Samoa [Mr. 
Faleomavaega] is recognized for 30 minutes.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, January 29, 3 short days 
before he is to arrive in Washington, 

[[Page H960]]
President Chirac of France announced, in a formal news release, the end 
to nuclear testing in the South Pacific. Though he makes a pretty 
speech, just in time to come to Washington as a fervent advocate of 
nuclear disarmament and to establish warm ties with America, I want to 
point out for my colleagues and to the American people, Mr. Speaker, 
the hypocrisy of Chirac's recent piece of propaganda.
  Mr. Chirac began his news release with these words:

       Dear compatriots, I announce to you today the find end to 
     French nuclear tests. Thanks to the final series that has 
     just taken place, France will have a durable, reliable, and 
     modern defense.

  Point No. 1, Mr. Speaker, France already has the world's fourth 
largest Navy and the world's third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons 
before it even began its final series of nuclear tests. France had 
already exploded over 200 nuclear bombs in land, air, and water, far 
from the home of the enlightenment. In particular, France had already 
exploded 178 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific. Were those 200-plus 
nuclear bomb explosions not enough to ensure a durable, reliable, and 
modern defense? If those 200 were not enough, why should we now believe 
that the 6 additional nuclear bomb explosions France has just conducted 
in the South Pacific would be enough to stay its appetite for an even 
more modern defense?
  Point No. 2: The final series of French nuclear tests were not even 
necessary. The United States freely offered France the technology it 
sought to ensure its so-called nuclear weapons reliability. Why did 
France not accept the United States offer? Because of a combination of 
two things: French national pride, and French suspicions that the 
United States was withholding state-of-the-art technology.
  Now Chrirac wants to be perceived as promoting nuclear disarmament 
and warm ties with America? One who defiantly violates world 
moratoriums and resumes unnecessary nuclear testings cannot and must 
not be regarded as a promoter of nuclear disarmament, and one who is 
suspicious of any offerings the United States might make certainly 
cannot be regarded as one who is promoting warm ties with the United 
States.
  Mr. Speaker, President Chirac continues his speech by saying: ``The 
security of our country and our children is assured.'' In turn, Mr. 
Speaker, I say ``At what price, and whose children?'' The sixth nuclear 
bomb that France exploded on Saturday, last Saturday, since violating 
the world's moratorium, was six times more powerful than the bomb 
dropped on Hiroshima, Japan; a bomb, incidentally, Mr. Speaker, that 
took the immediate lives of some 150,000 people, and later claimed 
another 50,000 who died from nuclear contamination and illnesses.
  In response to France's latest nuclear explosion in Fangataufa Atoll, 
the mayor of Hiroshima said these words: ``I feel renewed anger. 
Nuclear tests aimed at developing and maintaining nuclear technology 
will do nothing but increase the risk of putting human beings on the 
brink of ruin.''
  I might now ask, Mr. Speaker, what kind of security has France really 
secured for our children? The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the 
world's surface. I submit, Mr. Speaker, that France has put not only 
its children but all of our children on the brink of ruin by exposing 
them to nuclear contamination through a resulting toxic food chain.
  Mr. Speaker, Chirac's reckless actions have initiated the nuclear 
arms race all over again. Horrific environmental concerns aside, 
Chirac's decision to resume unnecessary nuclear testings in the South 
Pacific has opened a Pandora's box that holds chilling implications for 
nuclear and nonnuclear nations alike. Prime Minister Keating of 
Australia recently said, and I quote:

       The French government is to be strongly condemned for the 
     latest test at Fangataufa Atoll, and for conducting it during 
     negotiations for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty which are 
     now entering the final critical stages in Geneva, 
     Switzerland.

  What implications, Mr. Speaker, does Chirac's reckless decision to 
initiate the nuclear arms race all over again hold for those 
negotiations and for the security of the world? Let me share with you, 
Mr. Speaker, the domino effect of Chirac's reckless decision. These is 
now a serious move by India to link the negotiations of a Comprehensive 
Test Ban Treaty in Geneva to its call for negotiations to start this 
year on removing all nuclear weapons in a specified time. The five 
nuclear superpowers are, of course, against this move, but joining 
India is, ironically, Pakistan.

  Adding to this difficulty, India refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty on the basis that the nuclear nations are still 
maintaining their nuclear arsenals, which in effect make the whole 
treaty meaningless and discriminatory. India's Prime Minister has said 
and I quote: ``We are of the view that to be meaningful, the treaty 
should be securely anchored in a global disarmament context, and be 
linked through treaty language to the elimination of all nuclear 
weapons in a time-bound framework.'' In other words, Mr. Speaker, India 
is pushing for no loopholes in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
  As it currently stands, what assurances do nonnuclear nations have if 
nuclear nations retain their nuclear arsenals? If France's resumption 
of nuclear tests in the South Pacific is a case in point, nonnuclear 
nations have next to nothing in assurances from a five-member club 
comprised of one who is willing to defy world moratoriums at will, and 
four who are willing to act in complicity by looking the other way.
  Mr. Speaker, because of Chirac's reckless and selfish decision, India 
is now ignoring Western pressure to scrap its ambitious ballistic 
missile program. India is saying. If France can defy world moratoriums 
to ensure a durable, reliable, and modern defense, then so can we. Just 
this week India successfully launched a new ballistic missile, the 
Prithvi, that has a range exceeding 150 miles and a capability of being 
fitted with nuclear warheads.
  This means, Mr. Speaker, that India has a missile with nuclear 
capabilities that can reach the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, so now 
Pakistan wants to utilize M-11 ballistic missiles from China. These M-
11 missiles are also capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and they 
could hit key cities throughout India.
  But the chain reaction Chirac has created does not stop there, Mr. 
Speaker. India and China have just signed a mutual contract for India 
to purchase uranium from China. Now China, in an expression of its own 
security concerns, is developing warm relations with Russia. China's 
position is that you cannot depend on Western powers for its security. 
Now there is renewed apprehension between Russia and the NATO powers. 
All of this, Mr. Speaker, is a result of the fear France has created 
and fueled by its defiance in violation of the world moratorium to stop 
nuclear testing.
  Australian Prime Minister Keating sums it up this way: ``Such 
irresponsible actions send the worst possible signal to nations that 
aspire to possess nuclear weapons. The French government is to be 
strongly condemned.''
  Despite world condemnation, Mr. Speaker, Chirac arrogantly continues 
his speech of Eurocentric rationale by marginalizing Asian Pacific 
concerns.
  President Chirac state: ``I know the decision I took last June may 
have caused worries and emotions.'' Mr. Speaker, can you believe this? 
Charac thinks his decision only caused ``worries and emotions''. Is he 
still denying the environmental effects of his unnecessary nuclear bomb 
explosions in waters conveniently located halfway around the world from 
France? Is he still claiming that his nuclear bomb explosions have no 
ecological consequences?
  Is he unaware that he has initiated a nuclear arms race all over 
again? Or does he just take nuclear proliferation lightly, suggesting 
that it should cause nothing more than a few worries and emotions? What 
kind of world leader could be so barbaric in his interpretations, Mr. 
Speaker?
  President Chirac continues by claiming that, ``While my resolve was 
not affected, I was not insensitive to those movements of public 
opinion.'' How sensitive, Mr. Speaker, was he? Was he sensitive enough 
to stop nuclear bombings? Was he sensitive enough to consider the 28 
million people living in the Pacific region whose lives will be 
affected for decades to come as a result of the nuclear nightmare 
Chirac's unaffected resolve created for them?

[[Page H961]]


                              {time}  1745

  As Prime Minister Bolger of New Zealand has noted, and I quote:

       Despite all suggestions from France that this is a totally 
     safe and benign operation, there is no such thing as a safe 
     nuclear test. They all create massive damage. It is just a 
     matter of how much, when, and what leakage there is.

  Philippines President Ramos also has this to say, Mr. Speaker, and I 
quote once again:

       I condemn in the strongest terms the latest tests by 
     France. This latest test is a continued definance of the 
     international communities' appeals to France.

  Mr. Speaker, I might also note, this latest test comes shortly after 
all 10 Southeast Asian countries signed a treaty providing for a 
nuclear-free zone in that part of the world.
  While President Chirac may claim sensitivity, the latest in French 
nuclear testings are an affront, a slap in the face, to Asia-Pacific 
countries. Since when is a slap in the face, Mr. Speaker, considered to 
be an expression of sensitivity?
  Promoting his propaganda to the hilt, Mr. Speaker, Chirac continues 
his response to the world's condemnation of French nuclear testings. 
These movements, as Chirac likes to call what have really been 
international, ``testified,'' he says, ``to the growing importance the 
world's inhabitants attach to collective security and safeguarding the 
environment. I share these concerns.''
  Mr. Speaker, I am appalled that the world's No. 1 nuclear 
proliferator, the man responsible for initiating the nuclear arms race 
all over again, would now try to convince us that he shares our 
concerns for collective security and safeguarding of the environment. 
If this were the case, why did he not just accept the technology the 
United States offered?
  Why conduct unnecessary nuclear testing? Why reopen the nuclear arms 
race? Why create the paranoia? Why pit nuclear nations against non-
nuclear nations? Why pit Western powers against non-Western powers? 
Why, on the one hand, claim that there are no ecological consequences 
of nuclear testings, but on the other hand, choose to conduct these 
nuclear tests far from the borders of France?
  Whose environment is Chirac really interested in safeguarding, Mr. 
Speaker? And whose security is he really concerned about?
  In a very patronizing way, Mr. Speaker, Chirac also said, and I 
quote:

       I know that nuclear energy can be frightening, but in a 
     world that is still dangerous, our weapon is a deterrent--
     that means a weapon that can serve peace. Today I have the 
     feeling of having accomplished one of my most important 
     duties by giving France, for decades to come, the capability 
     for its independence and security.

  I think that answers in question for us, Mr. Speaker. It is French 
security and the French environment that Chirac is concerned about. To 
heck with everyone else's independence and security. France has its own 
rules. France does its own thing. If it wants to violate world 
moratoriums, it will. France, after all, comes first.
  Mr. Speaker, excuse me, but I thought peace meant working together to 
create an equitable environment for all citizens of the world not just 
French ones.While I am on the subject, Mr. Speaker, I might question 
Chirac's use of the word ``independence.'' Does ``independence'' in 
Chirac's vocabulary include freedom for the native people of Tahiti who 
have felt the brunt of French colonial reign since the islands of 
French Polynesia were what Westerners would call ``colonized'' by 
France, after some 500 French soldiers with guns and cannons subdued 
the Tahitian chiefs and their warriors in the 1840's. Or is 
independence just a concept, like security, that Chirac applies only to 
the people of France?
  Mr. Speaker, Chirac continues his dramatic monolog by saying, and I 
quote:

       A new chapter is opening. France will play an active and 
     determined role in world disarmament and for a better 
     European defense.

  Mr. Speaker, do I hear Chirac correctly? Do I hear him trying to 
justify his latest nuclear testings by saying he did it all to 
stabilize relations in Europe?
  For him to suggest that the resumption of French nuclear testing was 
done to stabilize relations in Europe is ridiculous. When France first 
presented the idea that in an effort of concerted deterrence it would 
extend its nuclear umbrella to its European partners, there were few 
takers, Mr. Speaker. In fact, Mr. Speaker, 10 of the 15 European Union 
members voted with the United Nations, protesting the resumption of 
French nuclear testing.
  Why, Mr. Speaker, are not the European Union members more anxious to 
be a part of the French nuclear umbrella? Partly because the European 
Union members are more comfortable with the protection the 
United States has provided them for the past 50 years, and partly, Mr. 
Speaker, because historically, France just cannot be trusted.

  Mr. Speaker, in the 1940's, France surrendered to Nazi Germany. In 
1966, at the height of the cold war, when nuclear missiles were pointed 
at every major country in Europe, France pulled out of the NATO 
alliance. Today France still has not officially joined NATO, and as we 
have clearly seen, from September of 1995 to January of this year, 
France cannot even be trusted to honor a world moratorium it agreed to 
only 4 short years ago. How can any nation, European or not, be assured 
of any French position?
  Mr. Speaker, Chirac says, and I quote:

       I will take initiatives in this direction in the coming 
     weeks. As all of you, dear compatriots, I want peace--solid 
     and durable peace. We all know that peace, like freedom, has 
     to be built each day. This is the purpose of the decision I 
     took and that will be the guideline for my action tomorrow.

  Mr. Speaker, can we really put stock in Chirac's guideline for 
tomorrow? France's own Urban Minister said about Chirac's decision to 
explode eight additional bombs in the South Pacific, and I quote, ``He 
did what he said he would do and he did the right thing.''
  Mr. Speaker, something is rotten in Denmark when world leaders 
consider that they have done the right thing by violating world 
moratoriums that they agreed to. Chirac's aide said Chirac will earn 
international respect for sticking determinatively to a decision almost 
as unpopular domestically as it was internationally.
  Mr. Speaker, if the responses of world leaders from Australia, New 
Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, the Pacific nations and Europe is any 
indication of international sentiment, Chirac will be a long time in 
earning anybody's respect. Anyone with a social conscience, world 
leader or not, knows that the only interest Chirac considered in 
resuming nuclear testings was the higher interests of French military 
industrial lobbyists and their profitable $2.5 billion nuclear program.
  Mr. Speaker, now Chirac wants to come to Washington and make a case 
for peach and act as a spokesperson for the world's poor. But, Mr. 
Speaker, did you know that France is now the top weapons exporter of 
weapons supplier in the world?
  Mr. Speaker, is it with irony or with hypocrisy that President Chirac 
will promote peach and act as a spokesman for the world's poor when 
France is the biggest exporter of weapons to developing nations?
  Mr. Speaker, while Chirac may script his story for Eurocentric 
audiences, the people of the Pacific who feel the brunt of colonial 
reign have their own story to tell. It is a travesty that on Thursday 
their voices will be made mute in this Chamber by one who so arrogantly 
and so openly marginalizes not only their concerns, but the concerns of 
the world community as well.
  Mr. Speaker, it is an act devoid of all social conscience that has 
afforded Mr. Chirac the opportunity of delivering his downright 
deceptive message from a Chamber that symbolically represents the 
highest of democratic values. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle to join together in insisting that the Speaker rescind the 
invitation he has extended to Mr. Chirac, and if the invitation is not 
revoked, then I urge my colleagues not to attend the Joint session of 
Congress.
  To attend the session is to act in complicity, to validate France's 
position that it is okay to violate world moratoriums, to resume 
nuclear testings, to initiate a nuclear arms race all over again, to 
place humanity on the brink of destruction.
  As a Member of both the Pacific Island community and the U.S. House 
of Representatives, and as one who has sailed to the nuclear testing 
site of Mururoa and been arrested at the 

[[Page H962]]
hands of French commandos in waters the good Lord gave the people of 
Polynesia, as one who has considered the kind of world that I want my 
children to live in, Mr. Speaker, I cannot in good conscience be a 
party to such hypocrisy.
  Mr. Speaker, I include the following articles for the Record.

               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 30, 1996]

               Chirac Ends France's Nuclear Test Program

                         (By William Drozdiak)

       Paris, January 29.--President Jacques Chirac announced 
     tonight that France has ended its controversial nuclear 
     testing program in the South pacific and will not embark on a 
     fresh campaign in favor of disarmament.
       In a televised statement, Chirac said he decided to halt 
     all further nuclear tests because France can now be assured 
     to a ``modern and secure'' arsenal as a result of data 
     gleaned from six underground blasts conducted over the past 
     five months.
       ``A new chapter is opening. France will play an active and 
     determined role for disarmament in the world and for a better 
     European defense,'' he declared. ``I will take initiatives in 
     this direction in the coming weeks.''
       The French decision means China is the world's only 
     declared nuclear power that still insists on the right to 
     carry out weapons tests. Others, including the United States, 
     have joined a moratorium while negotiations proceed on a 
     worldwide nuclear test ban treaty.
       The Clinton administration hailed Chirac's decision and 
     predicted it will add momentum to the treaty talks.
       ``The United States has consistently urged that all nations 
     abide by a global moratorium on nuclear testing as we work to 
     complete and sign a comprehensive test ban treaty,'' the 
     White House said in a statement.
       Under President Francois Mitterrand, France had abstained 
     from testing for three years. Chirac's decision last June, 
     shortly after he took office, to resume testing sparked 
     worldwide protests and contributed to a sharp drop in his 
     popularity at home. He insisted that the tests were necessary 
     to verify a new warhead for France's submarine-based missiles 
     and to perfect computer-based simulation technology that 
     would be employed once a test ban was imposed.
       The announcement that France is rejoining the moratorium 
     came two days after the final blast, described as ``less than 
     120 kilotons,'' or six times the size of the atomic bomb 
     dropped on Hiroshima, was conducted at the Fangataufa coral 
     atoll about 750 miles southeast of Tahiti.
       Chirac acknowledged that he was ``not insensitive'' to the 
     fear and consternation provoked at home and abroad by the 
     resumption of France's underground nuclear explosions. 
     Despite what he called the ``frightening'' power of nuclear 
     bombs and threats to the environment, he insisted that 
     France's arsenal will ``serve the interests of peace.''
       Chirac plans to make a state visit this week to Washington, 
     where he will make a speech before both houses of Congress. 
     He is expected to use the occasion to launch a diplomatic 
     counteroffensive, promoting the virtues of the comprehensive 
     nuclear test ban treaty being negotiated in Geneva.
       French officials said Chirac also plans to co-chair an 
     international conference on nuclear security in Moscow in 
     April. The meeting, which will review safety problems at 
     nuclear power stations, was conceived by the leaders of the 
     world's major industrial democracies last year to prevent 
     disasters such as the Chernobyl nuclear accident a decade 
     ago.
       With the South Pacific testing ground now due to be closed, 
     the French president reportedly will announce an aid package 
     Tuesday to help compensate French Polynesia for the loss of 
     lucrative earnings from the nuclear testing center.
       Chirac said France can afford to stop its program well 
     ahead of schedule--and two tests short of the eight he 
     originally planned--because he is satisfied that results 
     already obtained have fulfilled the programs' objectives.
       But it was clear that the surprising ferocity of global 
     opposition to the French program hastened its conclusion.
       Japan, Australia and New Zealand have waged a vociferous 
     protest campaign since the tests started last September. A 
     consumer boycott of French exports was launched in many 
     countries, though the government here claims it did not 
     inflict as much damage as initially feared on the French 
     wine, perfume and clothing industries.
       Chirac contends that what wounded him most was the lack of 
     solidarity from many of France's European Union partners, 
     even after he suggested the arsenal could serve as a 
     strategic shield for a future European defense community.
       Among the EU's 15 member nations, only Britain offered 
     public support for the French nuclear tests. Germany and 
     Spain remained mute out of deference to dismay among their 
     citizens, while governments in the Netherlands and the 
     Scandinavian countries were overtly hostile to the French 
     program.
       Now that the tests are concluded, however, Chirac gave 
     notice that he intends to emphasize the fight against nuclear 
     proliferation by pushing hard for a comprehensive test ban 
     treaty by the end of this year. Seeking to curtail the 
     hostility of protests abroad, France insisted several months 
     ago that the treaty should embrace the ``zero option'' 
     banning all tests, even those of the smallest explosive 
     power.
       Some military experts, notably in the Pentagon, wanted to 
     set the ban at a certain threshold to preserve the right to 
     carry out micro-explosions, ostensibly to ensure the 
     reliability of existing arsenals.
       After some hesitation, the United States and Britain 
     endorsed the zero option now backed by Chirac. But Russia and 
     China have not accepted the proposal. While Russia has 
     stopped testing, the Chinese insist on the right to continue 
     underground explosions because they contend their program 
     lags far behind those of the other nuclear powers.
       Besides the continuing dispute over the zero option, 
     negotiations for a test ban treaty now unfolding in Geneva 
     have encountered problems from other countries that may 
     aspire to join the nuclear club.
       India has predicated its support for a test ban treaty on a 
     timetable for the elimination of all nuclear arsenals in the 
     world, a hard-line position that if sustained could torpedo 
     the negotiations.
                                                                    ____


               [From the Washington Times, Jan. 30, 1996]

            Chirac Ends Nuclear Tests on Eve of State visit

       French President Jacques Chirac yesterday ended a series of 
     underground nuclear tests in the South Pacific that were 
     threatening to create a major embarrassment during his state 
     visit to Washington this week.
       Several members of Congress have threatened to boycott Mr. 
     Chirac's address to a joint session on Thursday and have 
     asked House Speaker Newt Gingrich to withdraw the invitation, 
     according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call
       In Paris, Mr. Chirac announced that with the completion of 
     the sixth and most powerful blast on Saturday, France had 
     achieved its objective of ensuring a ``viable and modern 
     defense.'' He said he was calling for ``a definitive halt to 
     French nuclear tests.''
       ``I know that the decision that I made last June may have 
     provoked, in France and abroad, anxiety and emotion,'' Mr. 
     Chirac said on state-run television last night.
       ``I know that nuclear weaponry may cause fear. But in an 
     always-dangerous world, it acts for us as a weapon of 
     dissuasion, a weapon in the service of peace.''
       The announcement came just days before Mr. Chirac's state 
     visit, which was postponed from last fall.
       Roll Call reported that several Democratic members of 
     Congress last week condemned the decision to invite the 
     French president to address a joint session and called on Mr. 
     Gingrich to rescind the invitation.
       A spokesman for the Senate historian's office called the 
     protest, led by representatives from Hawaii and the Pacific 
     territories, ``extraordinary'' and said he could not recall a 
     similar outcry in the past.
       Roll Call quoted the representatives describing Mr. 
     Chirac's appearance as a ``direct affront against the United 
     States and its people and of the world.''
       They urged fellow House members in a ``Dear Colleague'' 
     letter to ``protest President Chirac's wanton disregard of 
     the appeals by and on behalf of the people of the Pacific 
     region'' for an end to the tests.
       There was little chance of the address being canceled, but 
     a top Democratic leadership aide told Roll Call the event 
     could end up as nothing more than a ``joint session to 
     staffers and pages.'' Mr. Gingrich might have to ``hustle to 
     fill the room,'' the aide said.
       France began the tests with a Sept. 5 blast beneath Mururoa 
     Atoll. That detonation, roughly the size of the atomic bomb 
     dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, broke a three-year 
     international moratorium on nuclear testing.
       It made France the only nation besides China to test 
     weapons of mass destruction since 1992. France insisted it 
     had to resume the tests to check its nuclear arsenal and 
     develop computer simulation that will make actual detonations 
     unnecessary in the future.
       The testing outraged Australia, New Zealand and other South 
     Pacific countries and provoked rioting in Tahiti. But it did 
     not elicit strong response from such major French allies as 
     the United States, Britain and Germany.
       The environmental group Greenpeace, which fought the tests 
     with bitter denouncements and high-seas protests, expressed 
     relief at Mr. Chirac's decision.
       ``France has finally bowed to international pressure,'' 
     said Josh Handler, the group's disarmament coordinator. 
     Greenpeace said it would now press France to return protest 
     ships seized over the past few months.
       On Oct. 20, France, Britain and the United States jointly 
     announced they would sign a treaty making the South Pacific a 
     nuclear-free zone after the final French test.
       White House Press Secretary Michael McCurry predicted that 
     Paris' decision ``will provide new momentum'' to efforts to 
     reach a test-ban treaty. The United States had pressed France 
     to abide by the global moratorium.
       In France, too, pressure had mounted on the conservative 
     president to make Saturday's test the last. French trade in 
     the South Pacific lost some ground, and Paris' diplomatic 
     ties with Asian nations and many of its European partners 
     where shaken.
       Mr. Chirac's decision apparently hinged on how much 
     information the government's nuclear scientists gleaned from 
     the latest blast, and whether they and the military could be 
     satisfied with an early end.
     
[[Page H963]]

       ``Thanks to the final series which has just been carried 
     out, France will have at its disposal a viable and modern 
     defense,'' Mr. Chirac said. ``The security of our country and 
     our children is assured.''
       The Defense Ministry said the final test, conducted 
     Saturday beneath Fangataufa Atoll, about 750 miles southeast 
     of Tahiti, had a force of 120 kilotons--the equivalent of 
     120,000 tons of TNT, six times more powerful than the first 
     blast in the series.
       Greenpeace and other environmental groups called the tests 
     needless and dangerous to a region known for its crystal seas 
     and rich marine life. Some reports have said the continued 
     nuclear pounding cracked the atolls and could eventually 
     release radioactivity, a contention the government vehemently 
     denies.
       Mr. Chirac announced last June that France would conduct up 
     to eight such underground tests, then stop for good and sign 
     the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Late last year, he said 
     the tests would end by March and would number six or seven.
       President Charles de Gaulle brought France into the atomic 
     age in 1960. It stopped atmospheric testing in 1974 and bored 
     the test tunnels beneath Mururoa and Fangataufa, where it has 
     detonated 144 underground blasts.
                                                                    ____


                [From the New York Times, Jan. 30, 1996]

         France Ending Nuclear Tests That Caused Broad Protests

                         (By Craig R. Whitney)

       Paris, January 29.--The French Government said today that 
     it had ended its nuclear weapons test program for good after 
     conducting an underground blast in the South Pacific on 
     Saturday, the last in a series of six such tests that were 
     deplored by most of France's European allies and scores of 
     other countries.
       President Jacques Chirac announced the decision on national 
     television this evening, calling the halt ``the definitive 
     end of French nuclear testing.''
       Mr. Chirac lifted a three-year moratorium on testing last 
     year to try out a new warhead for French nuclear submarines 
     and to gather data for computer simulations that will make 
     future French nuclear weapons tests unnecessary.
       French officials said today that the six tests carried out 
     since last fall, which include the last and most powerful one 
     under Fangataufa Atoll in the South Pacific on Saturday, had 
     yielded enough data to make an additional test unnecessary.
       They said that Mr. Chirac also wanted to put his best foot 
     forward during a state visit to the United States this week 
     and that he would use an address to Congress on Thursday to 
     reaffirm France's intention to join the United States and 
     other nuclear powers in signing a comprehensive test ban 
     treaty this year to stop all further test explosions, no 
     matter how small.
       [In Washington, the Associated Press quoted the White House 
     Press Secretary, Michael D. McCurry, as saying that that the 
     French decision would ``provide new momentum'' to efforts to 
     reach an international test ban treaty. The United States 
     had pressed France to abide by the global moratorium.]
       Mr. Chirac had said last June that the tests would end this 
     spring but cut the number planned from eight to six after 
     objections to the resumption of testing came from 10 of his 
     15 European Union allies, expressions of concern from the 
     United States and vehement protests from Australia, New 
     Zealand, Japan, and other Pacific countries.
       ``The possibility of rebuilding relationships with this 
     part of the world, let alone New Zealand, is going to be 
     very, very difficult,'' New Zealand's Foreign Minister, 
     Donald McKinnon, said today.
       In an interview late last year, Mr. Chirac defended his 
     decision to announce the resumption last June, not long 
     before the 50th anniversary of the United States atom bomb 
     attack on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
       ``I didn't have any choice,'' he said. ``To get the tests 
     done in time to sign a comprehensive test ban treaty, 
     preparations had to begin in the summer, and if we hadn't 
     announced them, people would have discovered the work going 
     on and accused us of being duplicitous.''
       French military experts told Mr. Chirac, a Gaullist 
     conservative, that suspension of testing by his Socialist 
     predecessor, Francois Mitterrand, had left a question mark 
     over the reliability of the new TN-75 submarine-launched 
     warhead and had also left France without sufficient data to 
     future nuclear weapons testing to computer simulations.
       Without assurance of reliability, the French independent 
     nuclear deterrent would lack the credibility needed to scare 
     off potential aggressors, the military said. Mr. Chirac was 
     as determined as the late President Charles de Gaulle to 
     enable France to take care of itself militarily, if 
     necessary, without help from hands across the sea that could 
     be withdrawn at any moment.
       So he clenched his jaw while protesters poured Beaujolais 
     down the drain and hanged him in effigy as ``Hirochirac.''
       ``I shared their concern,'' he said tonight, speaking from 
     his office in Elysee Palace. ``I know that nuclear tests can 
     inspire fear.'' But, he continued, nuclear weapons served 
     peace by deterring aggression.
       It was to gather data necessary for simulation, 
     authoritative French officials said, that the last explosion, 
     equivalent to up to 120,000 tons of TNT and more than six 
     times the size of the Hiroshima blast, was set off under 
     Fangataufa Atoll on Saturday. Five other blasts were set off 
     there and at nearby Mururoa Atoll, both in French Polynesia, 
     between Sept. 5 and Dec. 27.
       This brought to 198 the total number of French tests since 
     the first one, which occurred in 1960 in the Sahara, in what 
     was then French Algeria.
       The end of French testing means that only China, among the 
     admitted nuclear powers, is still carrying out underground 
     explosions on its territory, though China's tests have not 
     elicited nearly as much vehement protest as those of France. 
     Tahitian protesters burned down the airport terminal at 
     Papeete and caused $40 million in damage in a riot after the 
     first test in September, and the Greenpeace environmental 
     pressure group sent protest ships into the test atoll.
       France seized the Greenpeace ships and has refused to give 
     them back, but Mr. Chirac was more irritated over the conduct 
     of some of his European allies, including Italy, Sweden, 
     Austria, and Finland, who voted at the United Nations in 
     November to condemn French testing instead of abstaining as 
     Germany, the United States, and many other countries did.
       French officials, who had not consulted with their European 
     allies about resuming the tests, canceled diplomatic meetings 
     in anger. ``It proves that there's a long way to go before 
     Europe is built,'' Mr. Chirac said, but he thanked Britain, 
     the only other European nuclear power, for never uttering a 
     word of criticism about the French tests.
       The French Defense Ministry has always insisted that the 
     South Pacific tests caused no environmental damage, though it 
     has conceded that trace amounts of radioactive iodine and 
     other elements had been found in the waters around Mururoa 
     after previous tests.
       In a gesture to its European and NATO allies, France has 
     offered recently to discuss ways of making its nuclear 
     deterrent part of a stronger European defense pillar within 
     the alliance, but concrete proposals are likely to be a long 
     time coming, diplomats believe.

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