3 Jul 2013

Tahiti opposition says nuke compo law needs review

3:11 pm on 3 July 2013

French Polynesia's opposition Tavini Huiraatira Party says a fundamental review of the 2010 French law to compensate nuclear weapon test victims is now in sight.

The party says this goes with the release of declassified defence ministry documents which show that the fallout of the atmospheric tests of between 1966 and 1974 affected all islands and not only the restricted zone claimed by the law makers.

It says with the territory's reinscription on the UN decolonisation list, the victims and their families will be given consideration not by France but by the UN.

The party says under the current French law, the Loi Morin, all but nine of the 784 compensation claims have been rejected.

Last year, the French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, praised the Loi Morin despite it being widely denounced as too restrictive.

In view of the latest revelations, the Tahiti opposition questions the stance of those defending the test regime, pointing to the President, Gaston Flosse, who last week told the assembly that no-one cared about the issue.