From mosa@netcom.com Mon Nov 20 11:47:24 1995 From: mosa@netcom.com (Michele Lord) To: dave@sgi Date: Mon, 20 Nov 1995 13:40:10 +0100 Reply-To: indknow@u.washington.edu Sender: INDKNOW-owner@u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Birgit Spinella To: environews@envirolink.org, gars@netcom.com (Gary Smith), indknow@u.washington.edu, eirp@listproc.wsu.edu Subject: Mururoa - Nuclear Colony D A V I D A G A I N S T G O L I A T H The first settlement of these islands was probably around 200 B.C., beginning with the Marquesas islands, followed by Raiatea. During the 7th centura A.D. other parts of Polynesia, including Hawaii, New Zealand (where the indigenous are called Maori), Tonga and Samoa were settled. the polynesian peoples build excellent boats and where called the "vikings of the Southern sea". They called boats their own, which where long about 40 meters and 200 people could travel on them. The indigenous populations in New Kaledonia, after having vegetated in a kind of cultural vacuum for one hundred years, had been colonized by forcible means and made economically more dependent than ever on the "mother-country" at a time when practically all other colonial peoples around the globe have attained independence. The early post-european history does not differ much from elsewhere in the Pacific, with the exception that explorers, whalers and missionaries arrived earlier and in greater number and thus destroyed the indigenous cultures more extensively. Two islands, Tahiti and Moorea, the most fertile ones suffered most. As missionaries in Hawaii, Fiji, and Tonga had done before, the protestant missionaries who settled there in 1797 took sides in the local power struggles and supported POMARE II, who was bent on killing off his rivals in order to become the chief. At the age of forty, he died in 1821, as a result of his heavy drinking. The traditional political system, based on a balance of power among two dozen chiefs, was accomplished twenty years later, by the French take-over. From 1844 to 1846, the Tahitian warriors, hid in the mountains, waged a militarily successful guerilla war, which they lost then through dissension among themselves. During the next decade, all hereditary chiefs were replaced by government henchmen who were called "ouioui" by the Tahitians, as they were nothing more, but messengers for the governor. In 1880 the protectorate was transformed into a colony called the French establishments in Oceania. this did not change anything as this was only the formal regognition of an already long existing "de facto" situation. The navy officers who had been in charge until then were then replaced by civilian officials, and the boundaries of the new colony were extended to include the MARQUESAS, TUAMOTU (Mururoa is part of it) and Gambier groups, but no attempts were made to govern and settle these large islands whose indigenous populations had long since been civilized literally to death (minimized to a fraction of their former number) by catholic missionaries. In world war II the majority of Europeans and Chinese settlers in French Polynesia felt that they were needed right there. More than a thousand Polynesians tried to enlist in the French forces. Three hundred of them were accepted and fought in a unit called the "Guitarist Battalion". The 200 lucky ones of them who returned alive were celebrated like heroes, but did not go back to their taro patches and fishing grounds. They had seen the world and did not find the local way of doing things very satisfactory. Their chosen spokesman, a Polynesian veteran from world war I, Pouvanaa a Oopa, had been a critic of wrong-doings and injustices, especially those committed against his own people. He gave the frustrations of the new generation of war veterans a new, political dimension by pointing out that there was no hope for redress unless the whole system was changed. His words were regarded as treason by the governor, who threw him and his most eager followers into jail for five months. Today around one million of people speak one of the native Polynesian languages, which belongs to the group of Austronesian languages. The official language is French. Due to the early arrival of protestant missionaries, more than half of the Tahitians are protestant, about one quarter belongs to the roman catholic church, 6 % are mormons, 2 & adventists and a small amount of testimonies of Jehova and Buddhists (chinese population). The Polynesian people have a strong bodily structure and are beautiful, they have black eyes and a copper-tone skin color; hair is black and even. the most important thing in family life are the children. The MAHU, the male transvestites are respected members of the villages. During his first years of life, he plays with girls and helps doing household things. A mahu is not necessarily homosexuell. In every communtity can be only one. With modern life in Papeete and with the tourism, the mahus today are victims of homosexuell prostitution. Most of the traditional festivities are lost nowadays. The greatest festivity today is the celebration of the French National Day on July 14th. A mostly rootless indigenous population in search of their own identity with a percentual large drop out of school-students. only 18,7 % of the pupils reach the diploma class, due to the French school system that does not care about indigenous ways of thinking, tradition and culture. For a short time now, Mahoi language is taught in public schools. The Maohi people say that the nuclear bomb testing is dangerous to their health conditions. Again and again they tell that friends and relatives have to fly to France for an oncological treatment. Nobody knows the exact amount of those sick people. the people are afraid, especially those who worked for the CEP on Mururoa. One former Maohi-worker from CEP, Manarii Teuira, told that between 1966 to 1972 three of his colleagues died, because they had eaten fish which they had caught in the laguna. First they lost their hair, then had some skin desease and later died in a hospital in Paris. Aitoa Tanematea, who came to Mururoa in 1976 ate fish from the laguna, caught diarrhea, high temperature, lost his hair, festering skin wounds. Later on the skin peeled off and one of his eyes had to be removed during a surgery. He suffered from weakness of memory and speech disorder. A woman whose husband worked between 1969 and 1974 on Mururoa, explained in 1985 to the European parlamentarian Dorothee Piermont that she had six misscarriages in succession. Shortly after the birth of her seventh child the skin peeled off. Many represantatives from polynesian churches, environmental organizations, political parties, with them the minister for health Jacqui Drollet demanded in august 1988 the establishment of an radiometer-institute under the control of the W H O that should examine coherence between the cancer rates and the nuclear fallout. They also suggested to control regularily the health conditions of the 12000 Maohi people working on Mururoa. It was extremly difficult to find appropriate information. The Pacific Concerns Resource Centre at Suva, Fiji can be reached by fax: +679-304-755. Another office of the PCRC is at Sydney/AU. I did not check out, if they have e-mail. Birgit ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> WorkGroup on Indigenous Issues Cologne LPSG-Cologne See our exciting homepage: http://www.ndh.com/home/spinella/circle.html <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>