Tahiti statute text on nuclear tests reworded

10:34 am on 8 May 2019

The rewording of French Polynesia's autonomy statute has been approved by a joint commission of the French National Assembly and the Senate.

Picture taken in 1971, showing a nuclear explosion in Mururoa atoll.

Picture taken in 1971, showing a nuclear explosion in Mururoa atoll. Photo: AFP

The commission agreed that to state that French Polynesia's contribution to the French plan to become a nuclear power was involuntary.

The original text raising the French Polynesian contribution had been cleared by the Senate in February but in the Assembly in April it was suggested that its wording was insulting.

The Assembly then changed the text to say that French Polynesia was made to contribute to the weapons tests.

The revised text is due to be voted on later this month.

Two months ago, the French Polynesian president Edouard Fritch said the main point of the revised statute was to calm domestic and international opinion about the weapons test legacy.

France carried out 193 tests in French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996.

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