reprinted with permission from
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 207-209
. . . Slowly, these newly independent
countries got themselves together and there
emerged the South Pacific Forum, originally
joined by five newly independent countries as
well as Australia and New Zealand. Prior to that
time, future political leaders from the Cook
Islands and Fiji had endeavoured to voice protests
about nuclear policies in the Pacific. They were
not allowed to address issues of a political
nature. But in 1965 and again in 1970 they tried. And in
1970, the French Commissioner, Naitre, walked
out of the discussions because political matters
were not part of the agenda of colonial people. He
did, however, say that if they could get
themselves together when independent into a new
form, he would be prepared to talk politics and he
would stay at the meeting. This type of political
and diplomatic posturing is the type of thing that
hinders and pesters our lives, and still today we
have colonial territories in the Pacific, especially
French Polynesia and New Caledonia. The
struggle of the Kanak people of New Caledonia
may be known to you. . . .
From 1946, the United States used the
Marshall Islands for 66 nuclear tests and Johnson
Island for 12 nuclear tests. Johnson Island, as you
know, is still a site for chemical weapon
destruction brought from Europe. Great Britain
made 12 tests in several Pacific islands, and in
Australia and Christmas Island, which is part of
Kiribati, 25 were exploded together between the
United States and Great Britain. Along with the
French program, some total of 290 nuclear
explosions have taken place in the Pacific
region. All of this has been imposed on us from
outside. Because we are distant, lonely and
regarded as safe. . . .
. . . before I stop, I just want to make reference to the
threat that the Japanese government made on our
region about nuclear waste dumping, because it is
a lesson that David can confront Goliath, or if the
mouse roars loudly enough, the cat might listen. The
Japanese government cultivated some
interest in the South Pacific towards the end of
the late seventies, when they began to fish our
waters and look at our forests for logging
contracts, especially those of Papua-New Guinea
and the Salomon Islands. However, with their
policy of building nuclear power stations they had
to begin to consider the enormous problem of
disposing of their nuclear waste. And they are
hoping to lead up to a policy of dumping some
100,000 Curies per year. And so they looked for
an open vastness of ocean and they focused in on
the Marianas Deep, probably the deepest trench
of ocean in the world, some few miles off the
coast, the West coast, of the island of
Saipan. Protest from the South Pacific Forum holding its
meeting in Kiribas in 1980 strongly condemned
nuclear waste dumping in the Pacific Ocean, but
Japan as a country was not aimed -- it was not
named, but the concern was aimed at them. Japan
sent a team round the Pacific foreign countries to
convince all the peoples of the Pacific that
everything would be well and all international
guidelines would be followed. Their tour was an
abysmal failure, and universally, all the
governments of the South Pacific condemned the
policy. In February 1981, Japan indicated that it
had put off its plan to begin experimental
dumping in that year. And by January of 1983,
Prime Minister Nakasony announced that there would be
no dumping of nuclear waste in the Pacific.
Peter Salamonsen
Peter Salamonsen, Fiji, Polynesia. Secretary for
Justice, Peace and Development, works for
the Pacific Conference of Churches.
Thank you, Madam moderator! I bring greetings
from the South Pacific region with warm thanks
to The World Uranium Hearing for greeting us
and allowing us to speak with you today.
My name is Peter Salamonsen. I work
with the Pacific Conference of Churches which is
an ecumenical organization for the whole region
of the South Pacific, extending from French
Polynesia in the East to Papua-New Guinea in the
West and to the northern Marianas in the North. My
regional office is in Fiji. I myself was born in
New Zealand, a nuclear-free country which has
enshrined this in legislation and is supported by 70
percent of the people of Aotearoa, New Zealand. For
this we have incurred the wrath of some of
our larger neighbours because we do not allow
nuclear powered or nuclear armed vessels within
our national waters. In relation to the South
Pacific, we come from an ocean which covers
one third of the earth's surface. Our islands are
like petals scattered across a vast blue carpet.
When I flew from London the other day,
in about an hour or in an hour and a quarter, I
would have crossed three or four sovereign
states. When I leave my home in Fiji and fly by jet for
an hour and a quarter, I have not reached our
next-door neighbour. The immensity of the ocean
has to be seen to be believed. It is the blood of
our earth. The people who dwell in the lands of
the Pacific, the indigenous people, have a word
and many derivatives which means not only land but
womb. The word (...?) and its derivatives means
"mother's womb" and "earth". The connection is
obvious.
I wish to give a brief overview of the
South Pacific and some of the issues which relate
to the realities and problems of our times. We do
have some struggles, long, bitter, tragic and not
over-well-known, some bitter struggles for
self-determination in our region, and I want to mention
specifically the tragedy of Bougainville and its
struggle for self-determination, East Timor and
West Papua, known to the people of Indonesia as
Irian Jaya. These people are our Melanesian
brothers and sisters and their struggle has been
long and lonely. Some enjoy a higher profile in
the media than others. But all their causes are
valid.
I wish to concentrate now on the fact that
Pacific island people have been subject to a form
of colonialism or paternalism which still exists
and the process from which they are going to take
a long time to emerge. At the end of the Second
World War, the South Pacific Commission was
initiated. And that was a gathering of people,
commissioners of colonial lands, mainly France,
Great Britain and the United States, who gathered
annually and discussed matters of a social and
economic nature. They used to invite local people
from their colonies who would one day probably
be new political leaders. And they met in an
adjunct called the South Pacific Conference. It
was as though they were children at a party,
drinking fizz while the adults were in the next
room drinking champagne. This went on until
1971, and by that time some countries had
attained independence, beginning with Western
Samoa in 1962. Slowly, these newly independent
countries got themselves together and there
emerged the South Pacific Forum, originally
joined by five newly independent countries as
well as Australia and New Zealand. Prior to that
time, future political leaders from the Cook
Islands and Fiji had endeavoured to voice protests
about nuclear policies in the Pacific. They were
not allowed to address issues of a political
nature. But in 1965 and again in 1970 they tried. And in
1970, the French Commissioner, Naitre, walked
out of the discussions because political matters
were not part of the agenda of colonial people. He
did, however, say that if they could get
themselves together when independent into a new
form, he would be prepared to talk politics and he
would stay at the meeting. This type of political
and diplomatic posturing is the type of thing that
hinders and pesters our lives, and still today we
have colonial territories in the Pacific, especially
French Polynesia and New Caledonia. The
struggle of the Kanak people of New Caledonia
may be known to you.
Within that context, I move now to an
overall regional view of the nuclear situation in
our region. The Pacific has been intimately
involved with the nuclear agony when in August,
1945, a small island next to the island of Saipan
was the place where two bombs were assembled
and the plane took off for Nagasaki and
Hiroshima. The following year, in 1946, the
U.S. conducted the first atomic bomb testing on the
Marshall Islands. Six months after the atomic
bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
the U.S. military governor of the Marshall Islands
went to the Island of Bikini and told its people
that they were going to be relocated to another
island because the U.S. government wanted their
island to test a new weapon. He explained that
this new weapon was for the good of all mankind
and designed to end all wars. Chief Juda, on
behalf of the people of Bikini, replied that his
people had suffered a lot in the last war, but since
the U.S. government was God-loving, and since
this new weapon will end all wars, like the
U.S. governor said it would, his people were willing to
leave their ancestral home and hope that it will
be noted in history that his people had contributed
to the future of humankind. The U.S. military
government thanked the chief, and as he departed
in his battleship, the people waved from the shore. Two
weeks later, the nuclear bomb was exploded
and one of the Bikini's neighbouring atolls
disappeared from the very face of the earth. Today,
chief Juda is still fighting the U.S. government
to get compensation for his people.
From 1946, the United States used the
Marshall Islands for 66 nuclear tests and Johnson
Island for 12 nuclear tests. Johnson Island, as you
know, is still a site for chemical weapon
destruction brought from Europe. Great Britain
made 12 tests in several Pacific islands, and in
Australia and Christmas Island, which is part of
Kiribati, 25 were exploded together between the
United States and Great Britain. Along with the
French program, some total of 290 nuclear
explosions have taken place in the Pacific
region. All of this has been imposed on us from
outside. Because we are distant, lonely and
regarded as safe.
This year, the French government
announced a suspension of testing in French
Polynesia for the rest of 1992. It was like the
celebration of some sad type of jubilee, because
they had been testing for 25 years. The president
and his "best deal" day speech of this year said
that the possibility of resuming testing could be a
reality in 1993. We say, if France is so obsessed
with its own security as the continent of Europe
integrates and disintegrates, then take the testing
home, explode your bombs in France!
Last week, when I attended an assembly in
Prague, a high ranking French churchman told me
that there had been some publicity in the
French press over an Australian company that
had negotiated waste dumping in the mainland of
France. And when the minister heard of it, there
was an immediate enquiry into the matter, bitter
outrage in the press, and a cessation called
for. We wonder who is wearing each other's hat when
we compare 25 years of nuclear testing as
opposed to one contract for dumping of waste. We
do not approve of either, of course. But the
reaction was interesting.
Later in the session you will hear
particular speakers from the islands of French
Polynesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands. But
before I stop, I just want to make reference to the
threat that the Japanese government made on our
region about nuclear waste dumping, because it is
a lesson that David can confront Goliath, or if the
mouse roars loudly enough, the cat might listen. The
Japanese government cultivated some
interest in the South Pacific towards the end of
the late seventies, when they began to fish our
waters and look at our forests for logging
contracts, especially those of Papua-New Guinea
and the Salomon Islands. However, with their
policy of building nuclear power stations they had
to begin to consider the enormous problem of
disposing of their nuclear waste. And they are
hoping to lead up to a policy of dumping some
100,000 Curies per year. And so they looked for
an open vastness of ocean and they focused in on
the Marianas Deep, probably the deepest trench
of ocean in the world, some few miles off the
coast, the West coast, of the island of
Saipan. Protest from the South Pacific Forum holding its
meeting in Kiribas in 1980 strongly condemned
nuclear waste dumping in the Pacific Ocean, but
Japan as a country was not aimed -- it was not
named, but the concern was aimed at them. Japan
sent a team round the Pacific foreign countries to
convince all the peoples of the Pacific that
everything would be well and all international
guidelines would be followed. Their tour was an
abysmal failure, and universally, all the
governments of the South Pacific condemned the
policy. In February 1981, Japan indicated that it
had put off its plan to begin experimental
dumping in that year. And by January of 1983,
Prime Minister Nakasony announced that there would be
no dumping of nuclear waste in the Pacific.
Speakers before me this morning have
referred to the plutonium trans-shipments by the
Japanese government from Europe to Japan of
enriched plutonium and also returning their
nuclear waste. No one is exactly specific as to
what route that ship or those shipments over the
next few years will take. We consider the policy
to be horrific. We cannot see how they will not
cross the South Pacific from Europe. In the
recent, most recent of South Pacific Forum
meeting, held in Honiara in July of this year, our
Pacific leaders have begun to speak out
extremely strongly against this policy. We feel
this is another form of post-colonial arrogance. At
the recent meeting in Rio, it was highly
noticeable that Japan wanted to be considered
among the jet-set of the environmentally
conscious nations. Yes, in fact, they were very
slow to sign the big-diversity convention and they
are quietly pursuing this policy of trans-shipment
of enriched plutonium for years to come into the
next century. We cannot have that. And we have
to make our voices heard in that regard.
Finally, I would just like to inform you
that in May of this year the churches and states of
the Pacific had planned a peace pilgrimage to
Europe to protest at the French nuclear testing
program and also the inherent and potential
hazards of the greenhouse effect on our Pacific
Islands and the consequent rises in sea level that
could take place and literally form environmental
refugees of whole nations from the Pacific low-lying
atoll islands. Because France suspended its
testing for the rest of this year and because the
Rio summit was so close, we have postponed that
delegation to be led by the Prime Minister of
Tuvalu pending the outcome of French policy for
1993. We know that, if we have to come in
February or March of next year before the French
elections, that your networks would make us
welcome and you would help us to raise our
voices against the environmental concerns of our
South Pacific region.
Thank you.