Senator Richard Tuheiava, South-South News
From 1966 to 1996 France detonated 193 nuclear weapons under and above the atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa in French Polynesia.
French Defence documents, which became available only last year, reveal that plutonium fallout from the tests spread across the whole of French Polynesia – an area of over 5,000,000 square kilometres (more than four times the area of Western Europe). Tahiti, the most populated island, was exposed to 500 times the maximum accepted levels of radiation. (See French nuclear tests 'showered vast area of Polynesia with radioactivity', The Guardian, 3 July 2013).
Nuclear test near Moruroa, French Polynesia
Senator Richard Ari'ihau Tuheiava, a keynote speaker at the Basel OSCE Forum on July 4-5, is one of the youngest Senators in France. An indigenous Tahitian, Senator Tuheiava is a young man with a mission – to represent the human rights and health needs of the people of Te Ao Mā'ohi (the indigenous name for French Polynesia) – and indeed to campaign for their independence from a colonising power that has subjected the population to the horrific health and environmental impacts of nuclear tests.
‘There is no other oceanographic region that has such nuclear contamination as French Polynesia. We have to be prepared for the possibility of further contamination if there is a disaster at the test site.’ Senator Richard Tuheiava, South-South NewsSenator Tuheiava, a member of the Senate Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces, has broken the relative silence in the French Senate on the issue of France’s Force de Frappe (nuclear forces). In a series of questions and motions, Senator Tuheiava has:
- campaigned for improved environmental monitoring of radiation leakage from Moruroa and Fangataufa (nuclear tests sites) and proper compensation for health effects from the nuclear tests;
- challenged French nuclear policy by raising the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons in the Senate and calling on France to attend the Norway and Mexico conferences on the topic (See Senator Tuheiava question in the Senate on the Oslo Conference).
- promoted United Nations initiatives for nuclear disarmament including the UN Open Ended Working Group;
- highlighted the recent challenge in the International Court of Justice to France's non-compliance with global nuclear disarmament obligations.
In addition, he has partially succeeded in retrieving jurisdiction of Moruroa and Fangataufa for the regional government from military control (See French Senate OKs Return of Nuclear Test Atolls to French Polynesia), and has conducted regional and international work to get Mā'ohi Nui (French Polynesia) reinstated on the United Nations list of territories for decolonization.
Senator Tuheiava speaking in the French Senate
Senator Tuheiava has also worked with parliamentarians from around the world, including through the Inter Parliamentary Union, to advance peace and disarmament (See Video to promote IPU/PNND handbook on disarmament).
‘This is an international problem. We have to raise this to an international level. The United Nations should establish a process to deal with all the nuclear sites around the world.’Senator Richard Tuheiava, South-South News
Senator Tuheiava is also active on the other existential issue for humanity – climate change. Already many islands in the Pacific are being impacted by climate change with ocean high tides sweeping over low-lying atolls, and the prospect of whole islands or even island nations disappearing.
A disarming and incredibly friendly person (in the spirit of the Pacific Islands), Senator Tuheiava will be one of the outstanding young leaders to speak at the Basel OSCE Forum.
- Watch the full interview of Senator Tuheiava on South-South News at the United Nations (in English).
- See also: International conference in French Parliament: humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons