""For 30 years, we were France's guinea pigs," says Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross, a young member of parliament from French Polynesia. This South Pacific archipelago a French overseas territory that includes Tahiti and is famed for its white beaches, swaying palms, and turquoise waters is often romanticized as a paradise. But beneath the idyllic image lies a painful legacy: decades of nuclear testing and its enduring consequences."
"There, she delivered a searing testimony about the long-term consequences of France's nuclear testing program: disproportionately high cancer rates, children born with deformities, and ongoing contamination of the region's water and soil. "So they really poisoned the ocean where we found all our food," she said. Both politician and activist, Morgant-Cross has also addressed the United Nations in New York. "We have been poisoned for the greatness of France, for France to be a state with a nuclear weapon.""
French military forces detonated 193 nuclear bombs on Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls between 1966 and 1996, beginning with the test codenamed Aldebaran on July 2, 1966. Tests occurred in Ma'ohi Nui, the indigenous name for the territory, and produced lasting environmental contamination of water, soil and ocean resources. Local communities experienced disproportionately high cancer rates and congenital deformities linked to radiation exposure. Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross traveled internationally to testify about these harms, accused authorities of poisoning food sources for national prestige, and highlighted false governmental reassurances about bomb safety.
Read at www.dw.com
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