B>O>O>M BULLETIN FOR 10/16/95 // All news material copyright Reuters.
Portions may have been abridged.
*CHIRAC CONVENES DEFENSE COUNCIL / EXPERT SAYS ATOLL UNSTABLE / PROTESTS
CONTINUE*
"PARIS, Oct 16 (Reuter) - French President Jacques Chirac gathered senior
ministers and military commanders on Monday for a rare meeting.
Witnesses said those atttending the meeting were officials who usually
comprise France's defence council -- Prime Minister Alain Juppe, Foreign
Minister Herve de Charette, Defence Minister Charles Millon and Economy
Minister Jean Arthuis, as well as the senior military.
Chirac's office declined to comment on the meeting.
The defence council last met in June, just before Chirac announced France
was resuming nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific. Two of the six to
eight planned tests have been carried out.
Reut17:41 10-16-95
(Adds other experts, fresh quotes, background)
By Patrick Chalmers
BRUSSELS, Oct 16 (Reuter) - France's south Pacific nuclear weapons test
site is unstable and there is a risk of landslides and tidal waves which
could submerge Polynesia, a French vulcanologist said on Monday.
``This is an unstable atoll...I would say that this situation constitutes
a high risk,'' Pierre Vincent, a professor at the University of
Clermont-Ferrand told a European Parliament hearing on French nuclear tests
in the South Pacific.
``All the factors which we now know favour destabilisation in volcanoes
are gathered together at Mururoa,'' he said, pointing to the atoll's steep
sides, fissuring in the atoll and alteration of its substructure by previous
tests.
``The shockwave from a new explosion...could be the trigger which would
cause the detachment of (previously disturbed sections of rock),'' he said.
Such landslides could cause ``tsunami,'' seismic waves from undersea
earthquakes or landslips, which could ``submerge the whole of Polynesia,''
Vincent said.
Even an immediate halt to France's current series of tests in the region
would not remove the risk, the professor added.
France has so far carried out two of what it says will be a series of up
to eight nuclear tests on Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls, sparking off
worldwide condemnation.
Vincent said current levels of radioactivity were not necessarily a
problem but the risk of landslides was.
``There's probably not a lot of pollution. My point of view is that it is
high time to stop. If we stopped tomorrow, if that could happen, we would
certainly have to continue to monitor this atoll for decades and probably a
lot longer than that,'' he said.
Swedish Professor Elis Holm, who told the hearing he had eaten lobsters
caught in Mururoa's lagoon, said radioactivity levels measured in fish and
other sea creatures did not present a human health risk.
Holm, a radiation specialist from Sweden's University of Lund, said
radioactivity levels in fish, clams and lobsters in the lagoon were ``maybe
slightly enhanced compared to what is expected.'' He said this could be due
to earlier French nuclear tests in the atmosphere or from British or American
tests in the southern hemisphere.
Euro-deputies also questioned Augustin Janssens, leader of a European
Commission experts' mission to Mururoa last month which returned saying it
had been denied full access to test sites and radioactivity monitoring
facilities.
``For the Commission, the data is not complete,'' he said, adding: ``We
made our reservations because we have not been able to meet fully our
objectives. This does not imply that the Polynesian population are not well
monitored.''
The European Commission asked France for outstanding data last week and
will decide its next step on October 23.
Reut14:54 10-16-95
LE FRET, France (Reuter) - About 10,000 protesters gathered outside
France's main submarine base Saturday in one of the country's biggest
anti-nuclear demonstrations.
Protesters, from environmental, left-wing and pacifist groups, chanted
``Stop the tests, stop nuclear weapons'' and ``Chirac, Juppe, you are
murderers and we are all Polynesians.''
France's controversial nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific are
largely aimed at testing warheads for new missiles to equip the submarine
fleet.
The protest took place in Britanny outside the Ile Longue submarine base,
headquarters of France's submarine fleet which is the backbone of the
country's nuclear deterrent. Police guarded the base but there were no
trouble.
Most of the French public frowns on the tests according to surveys but
protests so far have been limited. Demonstrations rarely managed to muster
more than 2,000 or 3,000 people.
Organizers of Sunday's protest were surprised by its success which Daniel
Durand, secretary-general of the Movement for Peace, said was ``a strong
signal addressed to the government.''
Delegations took part from several foreign countries like Germany and
Japan where anti-nuclear movements are stronger than those in France. Members
of the British Sea Action group in four inflatable boats played cat-and-mouse
off shore with coast guard boats which prevented them from approaching the
base's mouth.
Reut15:10 10-15-95
BARILOCHE, Argentina, Oct 16 (Reuter) - The 21-nation Ibero-American
group comprising Spain, Portugal and Latin America will issue a statement
condemning nuclear tests by France and China, Argentina said on Monday.
Foreign Minister Guido di Tella told reporters the final document to be
issued on Tuesday at the end of a two-day summit will include a clause
condemning such tests.
France has so far carried out two nuclear blasts out of a total of eight
at the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls in the Pacific.
China has exploded two underground nuclear tests in the last year and
military experts predict it is likely to conduct several more before the end
of next year, when a worldwide comprehensive test ban treaty is scheduled to
go into effect.
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PHNOM PENH, Oct 17 (Reuter) - Anti-nuclear protesters presented an
alternative menu rich in radioactivity to guests at the opening of a French
festival in the Cambodian capital.
Some two dozen expatriates angry at France's decision to stage a series
of nuclear tests in the South Pacific gathered on Monday evening in the lobby
of the French-run Hotel Sofitel Cambodiana, venue of the six-day festival.
As Cambodian and foreign guests arrived at the luxury hotel for the
opening reception, demonstrators urged them to boycott French products and
handed out copies of a menu to the fictitious Chez Jacques restaurant.
The bill of fare promised ``Irradiated Carrots a la Polynesian''
(Carottes irradiees a la polynesienne) as an appetiser, with an entree of
``Seafood Broth simmered in Thermoatomic Heat'' (Bouillon de mer mitonne a la
chaleur thremoatomique) and a choice for the main course.
There was ``Fish Au Gratin with Radioactive Fall-out and a puree of split
peas Green Peas'' (Poisson gratine aux retombees radioactives et sa puree de
pois casses Green Peas) or ``Giant Mushrooms from old French territory
'Tahitian Exclusion Zone' sauted in seismic jolts'' (Champignons geants du
terroir vielle France 'zone d'exclusion tahitienne' sautes aux secousse
sismiques).
A digestive followed -- Dormant Gap of Mururoa, a play on Trou Norman --
while pudding was a simple Bombe Glacante or Freezing Bomb, rather than the
more conventional Bombe Glacee.
Drinks at Chez Jacques' included a Grand Cru (Premier Vintage) Acid Rain,
Hiroshima 1945 and a cup of Ocean Tidal Wave with Pacific Aromas.
The menu carried a small-print warning a government tax of four billion
French francs was not included.
Witnresses said the protesters briefly unfurled a banner on the facade of
the hotel and handed out leaflets protesting against the two nuclear tests
carried out since the start of September at Mururoa and another atoll in the
Pacific.
``Join the Boycott -- Don't Buy French,'' urged the leaflet, which was
signed by citizens from 15 nations, none of them Cambodian.
Reut00:01 10-17-95
Reut19:59 10-16-95
LONDON, Oct 16 (Reuter) - A group of British members of parliament
called on Monday for a ban on French products in the bars and restaurants of
the House of Commons to protest over French nuclear tests in the South
Pacific.
``Thousands of British people are angry about the French nuclear tests.
It's time MPs said no to Brie, no to Camembert and no to Champagne in the
House of Commons,'' said Matthew Taylor, a member of the minority Liberal
Democrats.
The motion has little chance of being debated in parliament.
Reut13:27 10-16-95"
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