Saturday, October 28, 1995


   PARIS (Reuter) -- France has staged its third nuclear test in the
South Pacific in defiant fulfilment of President Jacques Chirac's vow to
conduct a final series of checks on its nuclear arms before ending tests
forever.
   Reaction in Japan, Australia and New Zealand was swift and emotional
Saturday in what has become almost a ritual of widespread condemnation
followed by concerted French defense of its nuclear program.
   In Tokyo, protesters outside the French Embassy stamped on
photographs of Chirac and one demonstrator solemnly cradled the carcass
of a dead dove in what organizers said was a symbol of the threat French
testing posed to world peace.
   The mayors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the only cities to suffer an
atomic bombing, issued statements denouncing the blast as an "outrage."
   In Japan, Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama termed the test "extremely
regrettable," adding that Tokyo had "repeatedly protested (against) the
testing . . . and we will again demand that the testing be stopped."
   But Chirac says France will probably stage another three tests before
it signs an international treaty, expected next year, banning all future
tests and turns to computer simulations to verify the effectiveness of
its nuclear weapons.
   The Defense Ministry said the latest test, carried out at 2200 GMT (6
p.m. EDT) Friday, was of an explosive force under 60 kilotonnes, or
60,000 tonnes of TNT.
   "The test was aimed at guaranteeing the future security and
reliability of the (nuclear) weapons," an army spokesman said.
   No further details were given, apparently following a new low profile
that Paris has adopted after concluding that its initial policy of
openness had only encouraged testing critics.
   As in the case of France's two earlier tests September 5 and October
2, the strongest denunciations came from the Pacific rim nations
geographically closest to the remote Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia
where the test was carried out.
   But the latest in the series of what Chirac now says may total just
six tests -- rather than the eight he announced in June -- cast perhaps
its biggest shadow over France's ties with Britain.
   The blast dashed London's hopes that Paris might delay further tests
until British Prime Minister John Major travels to New Zealand for a
November 10-13 summit of Commonwealth leaders, who have threatened to
isolate Britain for its hands-off stance on French testing.
   Worse, the test fell just before Chirac heads across the Channel
Sunday for his first official visit to London since he became president
in May.
   Britain, also a nuclear power, nonetheless again refused to join in
the international criticism of Paris.
   "This is a matter for the French government," a spokesman for Major
said.  "The important thing is the work that's going on toward a
comprehensive test ban treaty."
   New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger told Radio New Zealand he was
frustrated and disappointed by the latest test.
   Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said France "continues to
seriously damage its international reputation by its actions in the face
of world opinion."
   Russia added its voice to a chorus of global criticism. "The French
leadership is well aware of Russia's position on this," Itar-Tass news
agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin as saying.
   Karasin said Russia noted the test "with regret."
   Chirac's decision, disclosed just a week ago, to probably conduct
only six tests and try to end them as soon as possible was widely
ascribed to worldwide outrage which had taken Paris by surprise.
   France says the aim of the current tests is to reach the level of
technical know-how to enable computer simulation of weapons tests and to
test the security of weapons already in the French nuclear arsenal.
   The first blast in the current series of underground tests, which
ended a testing moratorium imposed in 1992, took place September 5 on
Mururoa atoll and had an explosive power about equal to that of the atom
bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima in 1945.
   The second blast, which took place at nearby Fangataufa atoll on
October 2, tested a warhead with the power of 110,000 tons of TNT,
expected to be the most powerful blast of the series.