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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2915 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

I thank also all the French people who are against the decision of ... M. Chirac.

When we hear this decision on the TV we feel a great pain in our heart. He said it is for peace and for France. I don't think that we will have peace by making bombs. Bombs are made to destroy the environment and to kill people. Everybody knows what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. When we hear this bad news we readjust by mobilising all of us in the streets, and it is the first time in the story of Polynesia, more than 15,000 persons were there. And on 26 August the Evangelique Church decided to protest at the front of the President of our government, M. Flosse. This last one says that there is no pollution in Mururoa; and the television shows him, his friends and military swimming in the sea, eating fishes and drinking ... water from Mururoa and Fangataufa. M. Flosse is a real comedian; we don't understand him.

I have with me documents signed by Mururoa workers testifying that many of them have been suffering from illness whose nature has always been covered up by the French military doctors; they have lost many of their friends as a result of these unknown illnesses ...

I am not a scientist, but I am sure that all the population of Polynesia die from the cancer. My mother is dead from the cancer of stomach. My brother Paulo is dead from generally cancer. My sister Celestine is dead from the cancer of lungs. My sister Leonie is dead from cancer of lungs. My sister Liliane is dead from cancer of breast. My sister Madeleine and myself had the cancer of the breast. Both of us have had operations; and thank God who heal us and keep us alive ...

I bring also a report from my cousin Marcel Tauruni who was sick while he was solider in Mururoa. He went surfing in the sea; he get very sick; all his skin come out, even his hair drop down. Mother has to ask the army to bring him back to Tahiti; and since that time, he has always problems with health.

I think that President Chirac don't respect human rights that France signed on 10 December 1948 ... How can a man, only one person, decide the destiny of thousands of people living in the Pacific? I have four children and five grandchildren; I love them very much. That's why I wish to protect their environment so they can live and stay in good health.

God did not create the land to be destroyed. God did not create mankind to destroy each other. I appeal to all the women here to help us so M. Chirac will change his mind for our future generations.

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