Anniversary of France's last nuclear test in the Pacific

Transcript

The editor of a magazine in Tahiti says it appears most people have forgotten about the date of  France's last nuclear test in the Pacific.

27 January marks 20 years since France's last nuclear weapons test at Moruroa atoll in French Polynesia.

The editor of Tahiti-Pacifique magazine, Alex du Prel, says a riot in 1995 - following Jacques Chirac's announcement to resume nuclear testing at Mururoa - left Tahiti shaken.

He says the damage caused by the riot may be the reason people don't remember, or commemorate, the date of the last nuclear test, and why people stopped speaking out about the tests at the time.

Mr du Prel told Leilani Momoisea that at the time, youth threw stones at police, and police fired tear gas  back.

He says union members also clashed with French security forces at the airport, trying to stop a plane they thought Gaston Flosse, the president at the time, was on.

ALEX DU PREL: The police force, they pushed in a corner all these union guys, which had to break a big window toward a shop, where they were selling pareus and pearls and stuff like that. The police force threw grenades, small grenades, and one of these tear gas grenades put fire to the pareu. This is how the big fire at the airport started, it just spread through the whole airport. On the other side of the airport, on the public side they were repaving the road with stones. Of course when seeing the fire, the young people from Faa'a came down and used those stones to throw at the police-force. Then this kind of quietened down and in the evening, suddenly groups of people were throwing molotov cocktails into shops. But only certain shops. Later on we found out that this had been well prepared. Why? Because the next morning when we heard about 10 shops and five or six buildings burned down, everybody in Tahiti went, 'whoa.' Everybody was ashamed, was scared, and so on. All the anti-nuclear groups left, and the population felt guilty. And we didn't have the slightest complaint or manifestation against the nuclear tests anymore. So this is my personal belief having lived it, and having talked to my son who was on the other side of the city while I was on one side - it's my sincere belief that this riot was burning down buildings and about 150 cars, was organised to stop all protests, and it worked.

Leilani Momoisea: Who do you think actually organised these particular burnings?

ADP: Flosse and the secret service. Because the next morning, I mean the flames weren't even extinguished completely and Flosse was already on the radio talking to, publicly talking to Chirac, and Chirac promising that he would pay for all repairs, and so on.

LM: So the rest of the nation felt, I guess a bit sheepish, because of all the damage, and that's when...

ADP: Yeah, yeah, well Tahitians are very emotive and so a lot of people who weren't actually guilty, felt - everybody, even myself - I felt bad, you know, after seeing the town of Papeete in such a state.  

LM: And what kind of lasting impression do you think that has had on Tahiti?

ADP: There were actually only three more nuclear tests, they were all underground, and that was the end of it. That was the last riot we had in Tahiti.

LM: In terms of locally, what people are doing to mark the day today, is there anything? Do people remember, how do people remember that day throughout the years?

ADP: Well, I think most people have forgotten. I'm on a neighbouring island, I'm haven't been in Tahiti, but I haven't heard anything that was any manifestation. Of course you're going to hear from some anti-nuclear, or maybe a few from Mr Temaru's party who will make a declaration, but until now there was nothing on the news at noon. It's a day like any other. What I'm telling you is when they did the first test, when they resumed the testing, you know. And when the last test went, nobody gave a damn. They announced it on the radio, and everybody said, 'So what?'.