The discussions aim to 'turn the page' on the aftermath of the weapons tests. Between 1966 to 1996, France carried out 193 tests in the South Pacific.

French president Emmanuel Macron called the meeting after a new study about a 1974 atmospheric weapons test caused an outcry.

The study 'Toxique' concluded the fallout from the tests affected everyone, not just those in the immediate testing zone around Morurua as the public had been told.

French Polynesia's president Edouard Fritch welcomes Macron's initiative.

However the opposition, nuclear veteran groups and the dominant Maohi Protestant Church are rejecting the initiative. They say delegation lacks credibility and legitimacy.

Fritch says the talks should bring 'truth and justice'. The agenda includes looking at the tests' impact on health and the environment, as well as the financial costs.

The Tahitian delegation also wants France to acknowledge its nuclear legacy in the constitution.

Fritch will be asking Macorn "to give us a precise timetable and above all to send us competent people in the matters that will be discussed."

A representative of the territorial assembly and the territory's members of the French legislature, will also attend the meetings, along with employer and union delegates.

French Polynesia's former president Gaston Flosse, who for decades defended France's testing regime, was not invited.

The pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira party has rejected the invitation to Paris outright. They say the planned talks are a sham.

Temaru says such talks should not be held in the capital of the colonising power, but in New York under the auspices of the United Nations.

While France refuses to acknowledge the 2013 UN decision to reinscribe French Polynesia on the decolonisation list, Temaru insists that "the right of peoples to self-determination is a sacred right."

Other boycotting the talks include members of the nuclear test veterans organisation.

Its leader says after 50 years of people suffering from the test legacy, those going to Paris put money at the forefront of their demands and not ethics.

Although the Maohi Protestant Church has declined to attend the talks, it has invited Macron to attend its synod while he is in Tahiti during the coming months.

The church leader says if they had gone to Paris, they would be misled.

In Tahiti the presence of the local people would create a counterweight to Macron.

The church says the French state proceeded with the tests despite knowing the impact of nuclear testing since before 1963.

Both the church and the Tavini Huiraatira Party say this amounts a crime against humanity.

Three years ago, they took their case to the International Criminal Court, but it is not known if the Court has accepted their complaint.

Paris roundly rejected the claims, saying it was a misuse of the court's international jurisdiction for local political purposes.

French Polynesia has paid $US800 million to treat a total of 10,000 people suffering from radiation-related cancer.

France has not reimbursed this money.

Developmental disorders are common. In 2018, a study reported pervasive developmental disorders in zones close to the Morurua weapons test site.

The study leader says a quarter of children he treats for pervasive developmental disorders have intellectual disabilities or deformities, which he attributes to genetic mutations.

Source

• Radio NZ
• Image: BBC

From 1960 to 1996, France carried out almost 200 nuclear tests in French Polynesia.

"I'm not surprised that I've been called a liar for 30 years. We lied to this population that the tests were clean. We lied," Fritch says.

French Polynesia's politics are contaminated by its nuclear legacy, he says.

Not everyone agrees with Fritch's views, however.

Fritch may consider himself to be a liar, but French Polynesia's opposition Tahoeraa Huiraatira party leader Gaston Flosse says he did not lie.

Furthermore, former French president Jacques Chirac, who oversaw the final phase of the testing regime, always told the truth, Flosse claims.

The fault lay with French scientists working on the weapons programme. They had misled him and Chirac, Flosse says.

In 2010 the French government offered millions of euros in compensation for the nuclear tests in the South Pacific and others it undertook in Algeria. Many have still not received compensation.

In 2013, French media reported that defence ministry documents showed the tests from the 1960s and 1970s were far more toxic than previously acknowledged. Media said Tahiti was exposed to 500 times the accepted radiation levels.

In 2016, then-President Francois Hollande acknowledged during a visit that nuclear weapons tests carried out in French territories in the South Pacific did have consequences for the environment and residents' health.

Bruno Barrillot, who is investigating the impact of the Polynesian nuclear testing and who died last year, has raised awareness on the disproportionate rates of thyroid cancer and leukemia among Polynesia's 280,000 residents.

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• 9 News
• Radio New Zealand
• The News Tribune
• Image:The Non-Plastic Maori

But the French Polynesian president Edouard Fritch believes the church's plan is pointless. He says there are still avenues left for a dialogue with France.

Fritch says to get compensation it is better to negotiate with the French government than to seek the protection of international organisations which have no power.

He says he believes that the French president has understood what the aftermath of the nuclear testing has meant for French Polynesia.

The Church's secretary general Celine Hoiore said the case will be filed in The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity as a result of 193 nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific.

The action is being taken for all the consequences of the nuclear testing, including contempt for the illnesses Polynesians suffer from as a result of the tests she said.

When Hoiore announce the decision on Sunday morning, at the conclusion of the Synod it was greeted with thunderous applause.

Later two former presidents, Oscar Temaru and Gaston Flosse responded on Tahiti Nui Television. " Temaru said "I think it is first necessary that we can get all agree ," For Flosse however, it was an " historic decision."

The French High Commissioner to French Polynesia said the nuclear testing in the South Pacific do not amount to a crime against humanity.

Rene Bidal said the definition of a crime against humanity centres on the Nuremburg trials after the Second World War and refers to killings, exterminations, and deportations.

He said the church should weigh its words, adding that a complaint as outlined by the church would be baseless.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• tntv.pf
• Image: tntv.pf

He wanted to raise the issue of sovereignty for French Polynesia. "Getting my country back on the list is the first step."

His move to be included on the decolonisation list is opposed by France and Australia and New Zealand.

Temaru suggested Australia and New Zealand should abstain rather than oppose the territory's petition to be re-inscribed on the United Nations decolonisation list.

Last year the Pacific Conference of Churches called for the re-inscription of French Polynesia/Tahiti Nui on the UN decolonisation committee's list.

The Pacific Forum leaders had issued a communique recalling their 2004 decision to support the principle of French Polynesia's right to self-determination. They reiterated their encouragement to French Polynesia and France to seek an agreed approach on how to realize French Polynesia's right to self-determination.

However the PCC said the communique was vague and asked the Pacific Forum leaders to be clear about their stand on Maohi Nui's bid for re-inscription on the United Nations decolonisation committee's list.

"They should clearly state that they support the re-inscription of Maohi Nui and this should be noted in the communique," said Reverend Francois Pihaate, Acting General Secretary of the PCC.

"For too long Tahiti Nui has been fighting for her freedom and it's time, we, as a Pacific family stand up with a united voice to offer our support," he said.

Reverend Francois commended the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) in making a clear stand on the matter. A resolution passed at the recent meeting in Nadi, Fiji, stated that the MSG "Supported the re-inscription of French Polynesia/Tahiti Nui on the UN decolonisation committee's list as the first step in the process of self-determination, at international level."

"The Forum Leaders need to take heed of the resolution passed by the MSG Leaders and follow suit. They should not try to 'play it safe' by dodging the real issue and trying to cover up by inscribing words of encouragement on the communique, because this brushes aside the human rights struggles of the people of Maohi Nui," said Reverend Francois.

"During the recent Pacific Church Leaders meeting in Samoa a declaration was passed in support of Tahiti Nui's plight. The Church Leaders' Declaration said : "We have listened to the cry of the people of Maohi Nui, of their desire for freedom. We have discerned as Church Leaders and we hear the cry of God within the plea of the people of Maohi Nui. We have heard the appeal by the President of Maohi Nui, His Excellency Oscar Temaru, for the support of churches for the re-inscription of Maohi Nui in the United Nations Decolonisation Committee of 24 list."

"In this regard, we make the following pledges:

• We endorse the request of His Excellency Temaru to assist his lobby for the re-inscription of Maohi Nui in the United Nations Decolonisation List.
• Further, we pledge our support, individually as churches and as members of PCC, to do all that is within our means to help Maohi Nui attain political freedom.
• We welcome the World Council of Churches commitment to advocate for Maohi Nui's re-inscription in the Decolonisation List of the United Nations."

Source

• Pacific Conference of Churches
• Pacific Scoop
• Radio New Zealand International
• Image: Cook Islands News

Church leaders have told the local press that they doubt a casino will benefit tourism, warning of negative outcomes for the poor.

A Tahiti-based businessman, Franck Falletta, has offered to take over the loss-making hotel if he can turn it into a casino.

In a further development, Walter Zweifel reports.

"The president Oscar Temaru has stunned the public with news that he is in talks with unnamed Russians to save the hotel with its more than 100 employees."

"He has dismissed a plan by a local businessman to convert the hotel into a casino, saying occult powers are at play while the businessman claims that he is guided by divine forces."

"The churches have also spoken out against the idea of casinos, which Mr Temaru says is not on the Russians' agenda."

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Radio New Zealand International
• Image: Carnival Conquest

The effects of rising tides in the region were part of discussions involving politicians and scientists from France, the European Union and the Pacific Island region in Papeete.

Delegates have heard that French Polynesia's 270,000 inhabitants spread over an area the size of Europe will be affected by climate change before the end of the century by higher sea levels.

Any rise in sea level brought about by the climate change could affect some of the low-lying islands in the Tuamotu archipelago, North East of Tahiti. However, the higher and less populated islands of Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora would be less affected.

Source

• Island Business
• Tahiti Presse

In three words, Father Honore Laval.