Flare up in South Pacific
AUSTRALIAN premier Paul Keating called it .an act of stupidity," and the rest of the world exploded in anger - but Paris remained undeterred. In the wee hours of Septembei 6, the French did what they had resolved to do 3 months ago: they set off the first of the series of the planned nuclear tests in the South Pacific.
It was a relatively small device of less than 20 kilotonnes, or of slightly greater power than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima 50 years ago. Military officials at the French Atomic Energy Commission reiterated that the test was designed to help develop techniques to simulate future laboratory experiments; of course, they failed to convince anyone.
Anti-French sentiments were brew- ing since June 13, when President Jacques Chirac announced his nation's "irrevocable" decision to conduct the tests. On September 7, they reached a boiling point. The terminal at Tahiti's international airport was set ablaze as riots broke out in Papeete - capital of the French Polynesian island - and the local unions went on a general strike.
Official reaction from other nations has ranged from expressions of regret to the severing of diplomatic relations. Chile and New Zealand recalled their ambassadors from Paris; Nauru, a small South Pacific nation, promptly suspended all diplomatic ties with France. India has maintained a stoic silence.
The leading European Union member nations have, however, reacted more guardedly. The British government called the French testing "a matter for them to justify." German Chancellor Helmut Kohl merely commented that "Bonn and Paris had differences over the resumption of the tests."
The us was more vocal. "We continue to urge all nuclear powers, including France, to refrain from further testing," said a White House statement. Japan, which has taken upon itself the mantle of reprimanding China for its provocative stand on the nuclear front, preferred to reserve its comments on the French.
If the governments lack fire, the environmental activists are certainly sizzling. Greenpeace, the international environmental organisation, created a sensation when it despatched a 25-craft peace flotilla - with the Rainbow Warrior ii at its nucleus - to the South Pacific in a dramatic show of protest. On September 2, the ship sailed into the 12-nautical mile exclusion zone around France's nuclear- testing grounds, with French naval commando troops in pursuit. The commandoes forcibly boarded the vessel and went on a rampage - cutting radio wires, smashing equipments and taking over the engine room.
Meanwhile, a Greenpeace helicopter filmed the -entire 20-minute raid. The worlo reacted with horror at the "army atrocities." The French had crippled their most yociferous detractor and could go ahead; with their tests without further interiention, but their image in the international arena had taken a beating as never before.