ANTI-NUCLEAR CAMPAIGNS
All those who love humanity
will oppose the nuclear designs, ambitions and craziness of the countries of
the earth, or to be precise, the madness of their political masters. The French
Governments decision to resume nuclear testing at Mururora Atoll was condemned
by a team of eminent men/women from Pondicherry.The background to our protest
here is given hereafter. THE HINDU, English Daily in a news write up
enlightened the Indian public.
MURUROA
PROTEST FLEET UNDER WAY
Wellington: August 11:1995
Atleast 14 vessels are under
way or preparing to cast off for Mururoa to protest the proposed series of
French nuclear tests slated to begin on the South Pacific atoll in September.
Several television networks, including U.S.based Cable News Network, plan live
coverage from the flotilla of ships and boats that will gather at the atoll.,
1300 kilometers southeast of Papeete. The unarmed New Zealand navy research
ship Tui,which will depart from Auckland on Saturday, will serve as the fleet's
aloof watchdog.
The battle scarred Green
peace ship Rainbow Warrior II rammed by the French navy at Mururoa last month,
has completed repairs and is scheduled to leave Fiji on Sunday. Greenpeace,
another of the protest group's vessels, will pass through Panama on Sunday. The
Vega, which 20 years ago was the first Greenpeace boat to visit Mururoa, is set
to leave Papeete on Sunday. Other vessels en route for Mururoa include the
Manutea from San Francisco and four yachts from New Zealand. A ship chartered
by Australian politicians, the German flagged yachts Colonial Heritage
and Tara, now in Rarotonga in the Cook islands.and the Lady Sephora and
Stardust 48 out of Papeete and Maiuhia out of Tonga are also scheduled to leave
for Mururoa. Other ships may join the flotilla.
The Tui Captain Lieutenant
Commander John Campbell, says he is under strict orders not to cross into
France's 12 nautical mile(20 kilometer) exclusion zone and if any protest fleet
crossed the line they could not expect help from Tui." They are naughty boys
after that" said Mr. Campbell. "They are law breakers and I want
nothing to do with them to jeopardize my government role". Radio contact with
Greenpeace was also forbidden during the mission,as was communication with any
vessels that breached the exclusion zone. "We've got to be seen
internationally squeaky clean" Brigadier Graeme Talbot of the Defence
department said.Government back bench
MP,Mr.Brian Neeson,who along with opposition labour MP, Christ Carter,
will be abroad the Tui,for five weeks, is taking Wilbursmith books, country
music, and a memory enhancement course. Carter has Collen McCullough books and
will do some weight training.
Keating accepts French
promise
At Sydney,the Australian
Prime Minister Mr.Paul Keating, said on Friday he accepted at "face
value" a French promise to close down the Mururoa Pacific test site after
a series of eight underground tests starting next month. His comment followed a
statement by senior French foreign Ministry official, Mr.Yves Detrieux, on
Wednesday that France would stop all forms of nuclear testing and close to its
Mururoa facility once it had finished its latest test programme in the South
Pacific.
The Australian Prime minister
Mr.Gareth Evans , said that while French support for a total ban on testing
under a comprehensive treaty would be a major breakthrough,he would prefer to
have it confirmed by the French President Mr.Jacques Chirac.However Mr.Keating told
reporters in Canberra that he accepted the commitment. "It was said by an
official of the French foreign ministry and we take that at face value that
authority brings" he said. Mr.Keating said the announcement by France vindicated
Australia's strong campaign against Mr.Chirac's decision to resume testing
announced in June.
" We've essentially led
the campaign and there is now a lot of European opinion against President
Chirac's decision, and very strong public opinion in Germany.", Mr.Keating
said. " I think it's German's public opinion that Mr.Chirac would probably
respond to, outside French public opinion, and to the extent that we have been
influential in that is, I think, shown in expressions by the French that they
will sign the comprehensive test ban treaty and shut Mururoa down.
French flags burnt
At Seoul, a group of South
Korean environmental activists joined the international condemnation of French
nuclear testing on Friday,by burning French national flags and products in
downtown Seoul.
Courtesy: -AFP
MUSHROOMING PROTESTS
It was almost like a sequel to a movie. Ten years ago in the
day, the RAINBOW WARRIOR, a coveted British trawler that had become the
flagship of the environmental group, Greenpeace, was blown up in the Auckland
harbour in New Zealand by French secret service agents.A Greenpeace
photographer was killed.Greenpeace, a consistent critic of France's nuclear
testing programme, had become a menace and the French Government had decided to
hit back. Two secret service agents responsible for the explosion were however
caught, and France's dubious methods of dealing with the nuclear protesters
were clearly exposed. The incident marked a low point between France and
countries of the South Pacific, and perhaps contributed in some measure to the
moratorium on testing that the then President Mr. Francois Mitterand announced
in 1992.
Now a decade later, Greenpeace,the French authorities and the
nations of the South Pacific are on collision course once again. The French
President Mr.Jacques Chirac's decision to resume nuclear testing in the Mururoa
atoll in the South Pacific lead to outrage throughout the region. Greenpeace
sent the Rainbow warrior II, the ship the environmental group had got to
replace the original Rainbow warrior, into the test site are as a mark of
protest.France responded vigorously French naval frigate rammed the Greenpeace
ship and naval commandoes released them 15 hours later.
The incident made headlines the world over, and further
infuriated opinion in the region. Australia and New Zealand, had done little to
conceal their anger the moment the testing programme was announced. New
Zealand's outspoken Prime Minister , Mr Jim Bolger denounced the decision as an
arrogant action of a foreign colonial power, while the Foreign minister Mr.Don
Mckinnon went a step further and accused Mr.Chirac of "Gaulist-Nepoleanic
arrogance". The Australian Prime Minister Mr.Paul Keating, recalled the
Australiam ambassador in Paris, and announced that all defence cooperation
between France and Australia would remain suspended as long as these
tests continued.These governmental protests were backed by popular boycott of
French goods and mass demonstrations in front of French embassies. Within the
French Pacific territories, the resumption of testing has given a boost to
groups demanding independence from France.
The concern in the South Pacific is largely on environmental
grounds. France explodes its nuclear warheads deep under the basalt rock that
makes up the Pacific atolls. Theoretically, the heat of the explosion should
vitrify the rock around the test site, and seal in the nuclear waste. But
environmental activists have argued that the radio active material can leak and
cause large scale contamination of the Pacific. They also say that earlier
explosions could have weakened and fractured the atoll so badly, that
radioactive waste would seep through. This has caused great anxiety in the
islands of the region, as well as in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, which
could all be affected if radiation leaks into the sea. France has argued that
the test cause no environmental risks, to which the classic riposte has
been"if it is so safe,why don't they test nuclear weapons in mainland
France?" Japan has lodged a formal protest.
It was not only in South Pacific that the French decision set
off protests. Closer to home, France's European neighbours made no effort to
hide their irritation. At a recent meeting of European union Foreign Ministers,
seven of the 15 members of the EU publicly expressed their dissatisfaction at
the French decision. The European Parliamentarians accorded a cold welcome to
Mr.Chirac when he came to address them.
The French decision is embarrassing to the Europeans for two
reasons. First, it came just after the conference to review the
non-proliferation treaty, and made a mockery of the statements that were made
at the conference by the West calling for nuclear restraint in the rest of the
world. Second, it has come when negotiations are under way to ban all nuclear
weapons tests, and has clearly indicated that despite all the talk of a test
ban treaty, the nuclear weapon powers have no intention of mothballing their
weapons.
The extent of the protest must have come as a surprise to
Mr.Chirac, but it is not in any way going to change his decision. Mr.Chirac is
convinced that this series of tests are essential if France is to continue to
have a viable, independent and nuclear deterrent, a view that is based on the
recommendations of the French defence and nuclear establishments. The timing of
the tests has been determined by the possibility of a test ban treaty being
ready by the end of next year. Before the treaty, France wants to develop the
techniques of simulating nuclear weapons explosions on computer, a
technique which the U.S is already well advanced in. Once France reaches this
stage,it will no longer need to conduct nuclear tests in order to be able to
develop new generations of nuclear weapons, but will be able to do this through
laboratory work. But to reach this stage France still requires to conduct more
tests. France, since 1991,has been working on a project to simulate nuclear
tests known as the PALEN programme.
The French Government has maintained that its current testing
programme, is not linked to developing new weapons, but only to get enough data
to ensure the safety of the French nuclear stockpile. Maintaining the safety of
warheads has been an argument that all nuclear weapon powers have used to
justify nuclear testing.But there are clear indications that France also
intends to develop and deploy a new generation of nuclear weapons. The first
ofa new generation of nuclear submarines is due to enter into service this
year, armed with a new missile., the M-45. Another missile, the M-5 is also on
the drawing board and there is suspicion that the current series of tests could
be linked with the development of a new warhead for this missile.A new
generation of nuclear surface to air missiles is also being planned.
The French decision to resume testing only goes to show that all
the concern for non proliferation shown by the nuclear weapon powers is not
intended to curb their own weapons programmes, but is only intended to
reinforce the current divisions between the nuclear haves and have nots.
Courtesy: The Hindu daily Article by Thomas Abraham in Geneva.
As world was reverberating with protests the Pondicherrians too rose
to act
FRANCE ASKED TO DESIST FROM NUCLEAR TESTS
Pondicherry July 18 -1995
A four member delegation of the Academy of Cosmic culture headed by
M.K.Sayeekumari on Tuesday presented a memorandum to the French Consul General
here Mr.Claude Bonnet, expressing their protest against the proposed violation
of the 1992 moratorium by the French government nuclear weapons testing.
The memorandum signed by ten members of the Academy also said the
great country France that gave the world three cardinal principles of equality,
liberty and fraternity and the nation that placed the individual as the center
of all political endeavour could take the liberty to infringe on the human
rights of Tahitians and 28 million peoples of the Pacific region and demolish
the foundation of freedom, justice and peace. France should prove to humanity
that it would live up to its tradition and culture.Non-proliferation talks and
treaties continue as never ending exercises in futilty. Nuclear weapon free
zones had also been earmarked but the day for the total universe free of
nuclear arsenals was still elusive, the memorandum said and hastened to add
that it would also become out of reach if countries like France wedded to
humanism continued the planned eight nuclear tests within the vicinity of
Mururoa atoll.
The memorandum appealed to the French government to refrain from
nuclear tests and help humanity develop under a cosmic culture and peace and
progress in pushing the borders of human endeavors. The delegation comprised
Dr.M.P.Ramanujam( an ecologist), Dr.T.Devidasan( who explained in French the
ill effects of the nuclear tests proposed by France to the French
representative.) and Mr.N.Nandhivarman.
Courtesy:
THE HINDU (July 19-1995)
(Mr.N.Nandhivarman after a self imposed political exile of 14
years was back in Pondicherry and was Associate Editor of New Times Observer.
Dr.T.Devidasan, brother of the Poet Laureate of Dravidan Movement Vaanidasan
was his neighbour. In order to promote the literary circle with certain global
goals,he conceived the Academy of Cosmic Culture, hoping Devadasan will
shoulder it. But with this one activity it died a natural death.The vision for
this cosmic culture emanated from the writings of M.P.John, octogenarian Editor
of New Times Observer)
