French Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson has criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for not offering a symbolic apology for the nuclear weapons tests that took place in the Pacific archipelago. Brotherson stated in an interview with Russia’s RTVI that 193 nuclear tests were conducted in French Polynesia without the people’s knowledge or consent. He emphasized that the tests have had lasting consequences, with people still suffering from illnesses and deaths as a result. Brotherson believes that a symbolic apology from Macron would have been an important gesture.
The French government conducted nuclear weapons tests in French Polynesia after initially conducting tests in Algeria during the early 1960s. The testing was shifted to the atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa in the Pacific, where a total of 193 tests were carried out. These tests resulted in an increase in thyroid cancer cases and exposed over 100,000 inhabitants to high levels of radiation, as revealed by investigative news site Disclose.
Despite the uninhabitability of both atolls, the French government has only compensated 63 civilians for their radiation exposure. In 2021, Macron acknowledged during his visit to French Polynesia that France owed a debt to the residents of the archipelago due to the testing program. However, he did not offer an apology and did not address the issue when he met with Brotherson in Paris recently.
Brotherson clarified that he did not expect a personal apology from Macron but rather an expression of France’s political position regarding the nuclear tests. French Polynesia is part of France’s overseas territories, a group of lands under French administration that are remnants of its former colonial empire. Although Brotherson supports full independence for French Polynesia, he believes that the majority of the population is not yet ready for independence. He highlighted that many aspects of the islands, such as education and healthcare, are financed by France.
In conclusion, Brotherson criticized Macron for not offering even a symbolic apology for the nuclear weapons tests in French Polynesia. He emphasized the lasting consequences of the tests and expressed his disappointment in the lack of acknowledgment from the French government. Despite his support for independence, Brotherson believes that the majority of the population is not yet ready for it due to the reliance on French financial support in various sectors.
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