From mosa@netcom.com Mon Oct 9 19:54:09 1995
From: mosa@netcom.com (Michele Lord)
To: dave@sgi
From: scott@rednet.org (People's Weekly World)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Protest mounts as France conducts second nuke test
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Date: 9 Oct 1995 17:07:28 GMT
Organization: PWW
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**Protests mount as France conducts second nuke test**
(Reprinted from the October 7, 1995 issue of the People's
Weekly World. Maybe reprinted or reposted with PWW credit.
For subscription information see below)
By Jim Genova
On Oct. 1 France conducted the second of eight planned
nuclear tests in Polynesia, despite continued and increasing
international protests against the tests. The latest test
was estimated at about 100 kilotons -- more than five times
the size of the first test Sept. 5. Seismologists in New
Zealand said the blast produced a shock wave equal to a 5.9
magnitude earthquake.
Just prior to the blast, the French navy seized a Greenpeace
sail boat in international waters to prevent any disruption
of the test. It was the third Greenpeace boat seized by the
French since the tests began.
The tests have provoked international protests, largely
spearheaded by the labor movement and Greenpeace. In Norway,
workers staged a five-minute general strike in protest
against French and Chinese nuclear tests.
In Australia and New Zealand workers are refusing to provide
services to or honor contracts with any companies that have
business with the French government. Workers have refused to
provide services or perform work for the French consulates
and embassies in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian
government has recalled its ambassador from France in
protest and opposition forces have called for a full break
in diplomatic relations with France.
In Tahiti, pro-independence forces announced that there
would be no mass protests in the wake of the second test
because of fears that violence would erupt similar to that
which left the island devastated after the first test.
Instead, the independence parties will concentrate on
campaigning for the march elections and putting enough
political pressure on French President Jacques Chirac to
stop the tests and negotiate independence for French-
controlled Polynesia.
Chirac has said that the tests are necessary to "guarantee
the safety" of France's nuclear arsenal. Despite the
condemnation and increasing isolation of France in the
world, Chirac said France will conduct all eight tests by
May 1996 and then will sign a nuclear test ban treaty
currently being negotiated among the world's nuclear powers.
Greenpeace charged that the real intention of the blasts was
to test new nuclear weapons before time runs out with the
signing of the test ban treaty. "France now has a brand-new
warhead for a brand-new weapons system, sabotaging global
moves toward a nuclear free world," Lynette Thorstensen,
Greenpeace spokeswoman in Papeete, Tahiti, said in the wake
of the second blast.
France may feel comfortable in its decision to persist with
the tests because of U.S. soft-peddling of the issue. U.S.
President Bill Clinton's spokesman Mike McCurry said the
president had expressed "strong regret" about the testing,
but stopped short of condemning it as other governments have
done.
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