Dear constituents of the French Government, 

 

Between 1966 to 1996, France conducted at least 45 atmospheric and 134 underground nuclear bomb tests in Tuamotu Islands within French Polynesia. These tests were up to 200 kilotons and over ten times the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The catastrophic methods used for the first tests included placing the bomb and letting it explode whihc caused the water and biodiversity it held to travel into the sky, fall back and onto the ground. The land was covered with dead sea life and left for weeks rotting across the coastlines. 

In 1979, France released a 120 kiloton nuclear detonation which caused underwater landslides and radioactivity within the ocean which wreaked havoc on the land and surrounding islands. The radioactive waste which spilled throughout the ocean, included plutonium.

In 1968, tests were completed in Fangataufa, another island within French Polynesia. The communities near the tests happened, islanders were locked in shelters sometimes for two days, and forced off the open areas to be protected from the blasts. Each time this happened, these peoples homes then had to be decontaminated by spraying the land of water. 

Throughout history, the impact of these tests and the reported gravity of impact chopped and changed following investigative journalism and lobbying. These communities deserve the truth. The ongoing damages from these tests are unknown. There were multiple permanent layers to these tests which still remain unknown. 

All documents, data and information related to these tests need to be released to the group of impacted people. Nuclear testing is known to damage ecosystems and people's physical health  to points where damage is irreversible. The impacts on the environment in the current state of climate change issues as well as the potential appearances of permanent physical challenges that these communities may face is unknown due to the lack of transparency shown by the French Government. 

 

The ethical responsibilities of the French Government to the impacted population have never been committed to, compensated for  and the government has still and healed the wounds created by this event and the lack of data and unpublished information leaves gaps in the descendents of these peoples. 

We wish to hold the French Government accountable, specifically the sector that ordered these tests, to release and disclose all information relating to the intention and impacts of these tests on the community and the environment. These communities need to ensure that the ecosystems which were impacted from 1968 and in 1996 are accounted for and protected in the ways they need by the French Government as their homes were forever changed due these tests. 

The French Polynesian Island communities must be informed, compensated, protected and apologized to by the Government who permanently changed their home forever.

We Invite you to sign this petition for action and compensation for the Tuamtous Islands and surrounding Islands, a Justice which is long overdue. 

Sincerely,

Mauatua Fa’ara-Reynolds

 

(supported by the Wan Solwara 2022 Team)

(Illustration by Amiria-Rose Monga)