...but protests keep going on

JAKARTA (JP): Protests against the French nuclear testing program at Mururoa atoll, French Polynesia, are not new. Similar protests and acts of sabotage have been conducted since the beginning of the tests but the results have been almost zero in terms of influencing the French government to stop the testing program.

A few days after Prime Minister Jacques Chirac's announcement to resume the tests, Australia's Foreign Minister, Senator Evans, led a mission to Paris to persuade the French government not to go ahead with the plan.

Unfortunately, the mission failed. Recently, Australia's Prime Minister Keating and New Zealand's Prime Minister Jim Bolger had agreed to further protest the testing program and to work together with other Pacific states.

Protests against nuclear tests have been conducted extensively since the 1970s by various groups in the region, such as university students, unions and church leaders.

Their activities have played an important role in shaping the anti-French attitudes of governments in the South Pacific. Their influence has not only been through direct political pressure but it has also been due to the fact that many of those early protesters later took up important positions within their governments.

For example, Francis Saemala, former president of the Students' Association of the University of South Pacific, later became the Secretary of the Solomon Islands Department of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representative of the Solomon Islands to the UN.

Student leader Saemala declared back in 1970 in Suva that his association would write to all South Pacific leaders, urging them to take a stand against further radioactive poisoning of the region's atmosphere.

Barak Sope, who was an anti-nuclear activist when he was a student, later became the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Vanuatu government. Other politicians who have close affiliation with the anti-nuclear movement are Father Walter Lini (former Vanuatu prime minister) and Father John Momis of Papua New Guinea.

It was not until its third meeting in Suva, in 1972, that the nuclear issue was raised. It was the first time that the Pacific peoples expressed their deep concern over the tests in an international representative body.

In the period between 1972 and 1975, the nuclear testing issue was discussed intensively without any resolutions, but in 1976, for the first time, the South Pacific Forum adopted a resolution against testing.

The issue disappeared from the Forum agenda during the next four years. In 1981 and 1983, nuclear testing was discussed again by the South Pacific Forum and it adopted resolutions urging the French government to stop its program.

Due to the negative response from the French government, however, the Pacific leaders became less enthusiastic about putting more pressure on France. The issue was discussed further in 1984, 1985 and 1989, but no resolutions were passed.

In 1972 South Pacific Forum members were unanimous in expressing their deep concern that the French government should have failed to recognize the wishes of the peoples of the South Pacific.

They also exchanged views as to the ways and means by which they could pursue their common objective of bringing to an end all nuclear weapons tests in all environments, by any country. As a follow-up to that Forum meeting, co-sponsored by Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, and supported by other Forum members, the First Committee of the General Assembly adopted, in November 1972, a resolution which called for a halt to all atmospheric testing.

In its fourth meeting in 1973, Forum members expressed again their deep concern on the issue, but that time it took the unusual action of approving and releasing the declaration on its first morning. The texts were cabled to the French government.

This stronger stand was actually sponsored by Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, with the idea in mind that negotiations were proceeding in Paris on the subject between Australia-New Zealand and France.

These negotiations were, in fact, the French government's response to Australia, that had sent a note to the French government stating that such testing constituted a breach of international law. The Australian government also told Forum members that if their negotiations with France failed, then the Forum should take the matter before the International Court of Justice in the Hague. All Forum members supported the proposal, although they predicted that France would not comply with the decision of the Court.

Although that approach was not completely successful, at least it affected French policy. A few months later, in August 1973, France announced that it would cease its atmospheric tests and begin testing underground. Thus, it can be seen as the Forum's first success in putting pressure on France, although at a minimum level.

In its fifth meeting, in 1974, the Forum reiterated its opposition against French nuclear tests. The discussion was similar to that of the previous year, but more attention was given to whether the Forum should single out France in its Final Communique, or should also mention China.

The wording of the Final Communique stated, among other things, that members once again called on governments, and in particular the government of France, the only government testing in the South Pacific, to heed the views of the Forum, the calls of the United Nations General Assembly and other international bodies and obligations under international law by bringing about an immediate halt to all tests.

At its sixth meeting, in 1975, in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, the members restated their strong opposition to the tests, and a proposal by the New Zealand government to establish a nuclear free zone in the South Pacific as a means of achieving that aim was added.

From 1976 until 1980 the issue was not discussed. This was due to the negative French response and the re-election of the Australian Labour and New Zealand Labour governments in 1976.

This implies strong influence by Australia-New Zealand and France on the issue. The Pacific leaders then wanted to spend more of their time discussing other issues which had immediate benefits for the Pacific peoples.

In 1981 the issue reappeared on the agenda. The Forum, then, reaffirmed its condemnation of the tests and even, for a second time, succeeded in adopting the resolution that "urges France immediately to cease its nuclear weapons testing program and provide full details of the effects of its past testing activities on Pacific people and environment".

Also at that meeting, Vanuatu Prime Minister Walter Lini proposed that the Forum should consider declaring a nuclear free zone for the Pacific.

Similar resolutions were produced by the next Forum meeting in 1982. After struggling hard to condemn the French government on the issue, the Forum, in 1983, finally received a positive response from the French government.

France invited the Forum members to visit the test site at Mururoa atoll and conduct scientific research on the effects of the tests, both on the health of the people and the environment. It was the first positive gesture by France since 1971, in response to the Pacific peoples' demands.

However, the experience of confronting the issue of French nuclear testing had a positive impact on the Pacific leaders. They finally became more united in dealing with issues of common concern. As Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Doug Anthony said, "There was no other issue which united the Pacific countries more than that of nuclear testing and dumping".

As a group, they had a strong voice on common issues in other regional groupings, such as in the South Pacific Conference. Besides, there were also other issues on which they later became more unified, for instance, on decolonization.

Nevertheless, the Pacific leaders still had one voice in opposing French nuclear testing in the region, though the degree of their opposition varied.

The Melanesian states' opposition was stronger than that of the Polynesians. The Polynesian leaders, such as Tom Davis of the Cook Islands, opposed the testing only because he wanted to join the Forum leaders in protest. Unity was more important than personal conviction. Davis confessed that he personally disagreed with the Forum's view due to lack of evidence of the danger of the underground tests.