...but protests keep going on

...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.