Myron Mataoa reprinted with permission from
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 217-219

Now this island of Moruroa -- you know what Moruroa means? Moruroa means "the land of secret". The land of secret. And today that land is really a land of secret where we don't get any information from the French administration on how bad was their testings since 1966. They have moved out some of the people living on some of the islands close to Moruroa, they moved those people to Tahiti and we, ever since then, the whole health department is under military control. So you will not find any record, health record since 1966 till today. This has been kept very secret. But ever since then we have had a lot of leukemia cases, cancers, heart problems, handicapped babies born, we have babies born with one leg, with one arm or with no arms. We have babies born with a big head like this. I've seen a witness, a family who has a boy of 16 years old, and that boy had a very big head like this with a short, a tiny body like this. It looks like a baby. A baby's body with a huge head. And this boy was 16 years old. And this boy, his family lives on one of the islands, the island called Ahe. And all of this you will not find on a health record, because, like I said, this has been kept very secretly under the military control. So the island, the name of Moruroa, the land of secret, has really the meaning of it and it makes us sad to see that our land and our people have to suffer.
And I want to say to the scientists, especially to the Council of Scientists that are here in this meeting, convince your colleagues, convince your nuclear scientists to stop! They are criminals! I hate Einstein because -- not only Einstein but all of those who have gone too far on their research on making nuclear weapons. They run too far, too far with the American Indians because they have uranium on their lands, too far with the aboriginal people in Australia because of the uranium, too far with the minority people like us. Why do we have to suffer because of the so-called intelligence or progress or for the name of development? And we have to suffer because you people think that you are too smart.



Myron Mataoa

Myron Mataoa, Tahiti, Polynesia. Member of Tavini Huiraatiraa (Polynesian Liberation Front).

My name is Myron Mataoa. I come from Tahiti and I represent the only independence movement in Tahiti called the Tavini Huiraatiraa, and also the strongest antinuclear movement in Tahiti. Our movement was organized in 1977, and we have been travelling all over the world to get international support for the movement, and we also work throughout our people on the islands. We had a lot of hard time at the beginning because we were facing the great superpower of France and to alter our people that was under colonization for over 150 years. In 1842, on the 9th of September, the first treaty was signed by our Queen, Pomere IV(?), and the French representative which was the Admiral Dipetitua(?), and I think that was the first trick that our people went through because we had no guarantee at all. Our land was taken, our mana was taken and our people, our people's right was also taken away.

I have here this transparency to show you, because I was surprised when I got here in Austria to find out that a lot of you people don't know where Tahiti is. Some of you told me Tahiti is over in the Atlantic Sea or in the Mediterranean Ocean. It is not there. Tahiti is in the South Pacific, the last paradise on earth, nuclear paradise. On the transparency here, Tahiti is there, an island -- with all these groups of islands -- about 200,000 people. And out of those 200,000 people, something like 20 to 40 percent are people from outside of Tahiti, meaning from Europe, from elsewhere, that live in Tahiti. And then for you that do not know where Moruroa is -- I'm asking my friend to point out the island of Moruroa. Okay. That's Moruroa. Moruroa is where France is having their nuclear testing, and that since 1966. 1966 they blew up their first atmospheric bomb. They called it the bomb H, the hydrogen bomb. The first one in Moruroa and the second one in the island of Fangataufa which is an island close to Moruroa. And they reckoned that those two bombs there were exploded of the force of a 150 bombs equal to those who were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So you can see the superpowers of France are working out on the nuclear set-up.

Since 1966 to 1991, there were about 44 atmospheric testings and over a 120, 130 underground testings. I'll show you the map of Moruroa with the different testing sites. This is the atoll of Moruroa. It's made of coral reef. You see, all these are coral reefs. And the inside is the lagoon, it's ocean here and ocean outside. And all of these black dots that you see on the map, it shows the many testings, nuclear testings that France has had in Moruroa. And there you see these, there are several of these signs on the map, that means the island has cracks in the coral reef from the top down under the ocean. And this was proved by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. I think, everybody knows who is Cousteau. Cousteau is a well-known man in France and I think in the whole world of the research that he has done throughout the ocean.

Now this island of Moruroa -- you know what Moruroa means? Moruroa means "the land of secret". The land of secret. And today that land is really a land of secret where we don't get any information from the French administration on how bad was their testings since 1966. They have moved out some of the people living on some of the islands close to Moruroa, they moved those people to Tahiti and we, ever since then, the whole health department is under military control. So you will not find any record, health record since 1966 till today. This has been kept very secret. But ever since then we have had a lot of leukemia cases, cancers, heart problems, handicapped babies born, we have babies born with one leg, with one arm or with no arms. We have babies born with a big head like this. I've seen a witness, a family who has a boy of 16 years old, and that boy had a very big head like this with a short, a tiny body like this. It looks like a baby. A baby's body with a huge head. And this boy was 16 years old. And this boy, his family lives on one of the islands, the island called Ahe. And all of this you will not find on a health record, because, like I said, this has been kept very secretly under the military control. So the island, the name of Moruroa, the land of secret, has really the meaning of it and it makes us sad to see that our land and our people have to suffer.

And I want to say to the scientists, especially to the Council of Scientists that are here in this meeting, convince your colleagues, convince your nuclear scientists to stop! They are criminals! I hate Einstein because -- not only Einstein but all of those who have gone too far on their research on making nuclear weapons. They run too far, too far with the American Indians because they have uranium on their lands, too far with the aboriginal people in Australia because of the uranium, too far with the minority people like us. Why do we have to suffer because of the so-called intelligence or progress or for the name of development? And we have to suffer because you people think that you are too smart. So get the message through to these people. Because the way it looks now, if we take France, America, China and all of those big countries that have bombs, one of these days they will blow up the whole planet. Not only that we're going to disappear, but they will disappear, too. So convince them to stop! Because if they were not there, I don't think the government will ever make any bomb. But because of the scientists, because of their research, then the government, a lot of governments utilize them, post them to make the bombs. And we have to suffer.

I don't know if you know how it looks, a bomb, but this is to give you an idea of what is a bomb, explosion of a bomb. This has been done in Moruroa, one of the first atmospheric testing in Mururoa. I said to these people, why are they doing this on our back ground, on our back yard, in our mother's stomach, in our ocean? I like the theme of today. Theme of the day is the Day of Waters. Waters, we live on waters. The islanders live on waters, we live out of the sea, we live out of the land, but this is going to kill us, to exterminate us because we get our food from there, we get our strength from there.

What else to say? Our struggles as a political movement -- we said it is a political matter and it has to be brought out to the political level. And we said only independence of our country, of our islands, of Tahiti. Only the independence, the political independence, then we can get this damned thing out. Because as long as we remain a French territory, France will never cease to do this in Moruroa. Of course, they stopped this year and it looks like France is the good one. But they will start back next year. I want to inform you that on Sunday, this coming Sunday, the 20th of September, France is having a referendum on a national level in France, in its territories, its departments on the Maastricht treaty. And what is the Maastricht treaty, do you know it? Do you Germans know what's the Maastricht treaty? That means a free circulation for you people to come to our islands and live there and possess our lands and be part of this. You know that? Because you are creating a new community, it's called the European Community, and Germany will be part of this. Austria maybe will be part of this. Belgium will be part of this. Holland will be part of this, so we are multiplying our problem by twelve instead of by one. We're not facing any more, and we will not be facing anymore to one nation, we'll be facing to twelve big nations from Europe! And do you think it's fair? Do you think that is fair for us? Now, I want to hear from you, do you think that is fair?

Audience:

No!

Okay. take the message back to your governments!

Look at this transparency. It shows you the island of Moruroa. It shows you here when they blow up, up, the nuclear testing, the bombs, and it shows here the radioactivity that goes in and where fish go there and eat on the coral reef, because they get their food from the coral reef, and it comes to this and here our people go out and fish and get the fish and eat them and they get poisoned and they die. This is a sort of genocide to our people. What do you think about it? I'm asking this conference, The World Hearing, to think about that small island of Tahiti, 20,000 kilometers from here, maybe you will never hear about, I mean, I think you never hear about Tahiti. But it's 20,000 kilometers out there, and by looking up the great ocean that surrounds our islands, there are about five million square kilometers of ocean area that we have. We can put the whole of Europe in. The great waters, the Day of Waters, that's us.

I'm getting too emotional, so I'll finish up with my presentation of the day. I'd like to bring up the case of the Kanak people too, because we feel that the Kanak also has a long way to go. If you don't know where the Kanaki people are, they're in New Caledonia. New Caledonia, another French territory, they've gone through a lot of struggles, they've gone through fights, they've gone through wars. Some of their people died, killed, and they are considered as rebels in their own countries. And my heart goes with them and their struggle. And my heart goes, too, to the West Papua people; they are struggling, too, very heavily. They are having guerrilla wars over there in their countries. They are having genocide in the West Papua. And nobody cares about. No nation will look after their cases. Why? Because Indonesia has a lot of interest in West Papua. And that nobody wants to speak out. We, as natives of the South Pacific, we would like to support the West Papua case and I'm asking this conference to look up, to take up the West Papua case, make a resolution that they also need to survive, they also need the self-determination. They also need to get their lands back. My heart also goes to all of my Indian brothers and sisters. The suffering they have gone through since 500 years ago, until today. And I'm happy to hear from them that they will never cease, that they will never stop their struggles. My heart goes with them. And I'd like to congratulate the organization of The World Uranium Hearing for bringing us here -- it took us 35 hours to come from Tahiti to your place. And thank you for giving us the time to speak up, to share our troubles, our problems with you.

God bless you!