31 Jul 2013

Tahiti politicians chided over nuclear test claims

6:35 pm on 31 July 2013

French Polynesia's nuclear test veterans organisation has taken exception to comments by local top politicians that they had been guaranteed by France that its nuclear weapons tests were clean.

France carried out 193 tests in the Pacific - the last one in 1996.

Moruroa e tatou says it was French money that ensured Gaston Flosse and Edouard Fritch kept quiet when people's health and environment were being attacked.

It says it's hypocrisy to claim now that they're standing up for the French Polynesia's victims while voting in Paris for attempts to delay compensation.

Furthermore, it says, these politicians have denigrated the work of experts, which amounts to defamation.