TAHITI: French nuclear test compo 'peanuts', veterans tell media

Title – 6035 TAHITI: French nuclear test compo 'peanuts', veterans tell
media

Date – 27 March 2009

Byline – None

Origin – Pacific Media Watch

Source – Radio NZ International, 26/03/09

Copyright – RNZI

Status – Unabridged

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*FRENCH NUCLEAR TEST COMPENSATION TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE, SAYS VETERANS GROUP
*

www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=45558

PAPE'ETE (*RNZI Online/Pacific Media Watch*): A 10 million euro compensation
package for the victims of nuclear test is being described as "peanuts".

French Defence Minister Hervé Morin has outlined the main points of a
proposed bill to compensate - for the first time - victims of nuclear
testing conducted by France both in Algeria and later in French Polynesia,
between 1966 and 1996.

Roland Oldham, the president of the French Polynesian nuclear test veterans’
group, Moruroa o Tatou, says the deal is a bad joke.

*“They announce a few million like that, just like we should be very happy,
we should drop on our knees and say thank you to the French Government. But
that’s not the case at all, because it’s peanuts , it really is peanuts when
you compare how the French government spends a lot of money on defence.”*

Oldham says the French plan is not good for the victims.

He says there needs to be a health structure to help them, and the
environmental impact should not be ignored.