PROHIBITING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

A Pacific Islands Priority By Nic Maclellan

Published by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Australia in March 2017. An earlier version of this report was published in January 2014 with the title Banning Nuclear Weapons: A Pacific Islands Perspective.

Contact: [email protected]

Cover: The United States detonates an atomic bomb 27 metres underwater at Bikini Atoll on 25 July 1946, sinking eight of the surrounding warships, which had been positioned nearby for experimental purposes. The bomb’s explosive yield of 23 kilotonnes is slightly greater than that of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, but several hundred times smaller than that of the infamous “Bravo” test at Bikini Atoll in 1954 – the largest US nuclear explosion in history. (Note that this image has been digitally colourized.)

This page: A mushroom cloud rises above Moruroa Atoll after a French nuclear test in 1970. Contents

Introduction 3 At the forefront of global efforts to ban nuclear weapons

History 4 The struggle for a nuclear-free and independent Pacific

Timeline 6 Nuclear testing in the Pacific

Public opposition 8 Resistance to nuclear testing and the build-up of nuclear arms

Health impact 11 The long-term effects of nuclear testing in the Pacific

Boxes

1 Marshall Islands Nuclear test survivors speak out 5 2 HUMAN SECURITY Women building a more peaceful Pacific 10 3 Red Cross Nuclear weapons must be prohibited and eliminated 10 4 Moruroa Atoll Clean-up workers unprotected from radiation 12 5 Kiritimati Decades on, physical and emotional wounds remain 13 6 AUSTRALIA A nation that dishonours its nuclear test survivors 14 7 HUMANITARIAN CONFERENCES Pacific island states demand action 15 8 Rarotonga Treaty The South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone 16

Johnston (Kalama) Atoll 67 US nuclear tests ENEWETAK & Bikini AtollS US nuclear tests 9 31 Kiritimati (Christmas) Island US and UK nuclear tests

Malden Island UK nuclear tests 3 3 Monte Bello Islands 193 Moruroa & UK nuclear tests Fangataufa Atolls 9 French nuclear tests + 600 “minor trials” Emu Field & MARALINGA UK nuclear tests

Map: Pacific nuclear test sites

From 1946 to 1958, the United there were 12 atmospheric tests at central Pacific from 1957 to 1958. States conducted 67 atomic and the Monte Bello Islands, Maralinga After conducting four atmospheric hydrogen bomb tests at Bikini and and Emu Field in Australia (1952–57). tests at Reganne (1960–61) and 13 Enewetak atolls in the Marshall Islands, There were also more than 600 underground tests at In Eker (1961–6) accounting for 32 per cent of all US “minor” trials, such as the testing of in the Sahara desert of Algeria, France atmospheric tests. In the 1960s, there bomb components and the burning of established its Pacific nuclear test were 25 further US tests at Christmas plutonium, uranium and other nuclear centre in French Polynesia. For 30 (Kiritimati) Island and nine at materials, conducted at Maralinga. years between 1966 and 1996, France Johnston (Kalama) Atoll. Under “Operation Grapple”, the conducted 193 atmospheric and The United Kingdom tested nuclear British government conducted another underground nuclear tests at Moruroa weapons in Australia and its Pacific nine atomic and hydrogen bomb tests and Fangataufa atolls. colonies in the 1950s. Starting in 1952, at Kiritimati and Malden islands in the Introduction At the forefront of global efforts to ban nuclear weapons

n one of its final acts of 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution to begin negotiations on a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. All Pacific island states, with the exception of the Federated States of Micronesia, voted “yes”. Disarmament has long been a topI priority for the Pacific region, which has suffered greatly from decades of nuclear testing.

In a submission to a UN disarmament working group and disconnected from their indigenous way of in Geneva in May 2016, the governments of Fiji, life. They have suffered, and continue to suffer, Nauru, Palau, Samoa and Tuvalu wrote: “The lived untold anguish, heartache and pain,” Pacific island experience of our people informs our policies on governments informed the UN working group. nuclear disarmament. It motivates us to contribute “It will never be possible to restore fully our substantively to the work of bodies such as this.” precious islands to their former pristine state, nor Pacific island states have been at the forefront of to undo the harm inflicted upon our people over recent global efforts to build support for the complete generations. We can, however, work with other nations prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. They to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again, participated actively in three major intergovernmental whether in testing programmes or in warfare. This conferences in 2013 and 2014 examining the can be guaranteed only through their complete and humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. Their irreversible elimination.” representatives offered personal testimonies on the Many Pacific island states have expressed harm that such weapons inflict. deep concern about the continued existence of approximately 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world and the lack of any concrete plans to eliminate them. “Some islanders have been In 2014, the Republic of the Marshall Islands – where permanently displaced from their the United States conducted 67 US nuclear test homes and disconnected from their explosions between 1946 and 1958 – initiated legal indigenous way of life. They have proceedings against all nine nuclear-armed nations suffered, and continued to suffer, with the aim of compelling them to take seriously their untold anguish, heartache and pain.” disarmament obligations under the Non-Proliferation

– Fiji, Nauru, Palau, Samoa and Tuvalu, 2016 Treaty and customary international law. Pacific nations have also consistently voiced strong From 1946 to 1996, some 300 nuclear test support for the adoption of a treaty that places nuclear explosions were conducted in the Pacific. Their weapons on the same legal footing as other weapons impact on the fragile ecology of the region and the of mass destruction, which have long been banned. health and mental well-being of its peoples has been They have presented detailed proposals for the profound and long-lasting. Pacific islanders continue to elements to be included in such a treaty. experience epidemics of cancers, chronic diseases and They view the prohibition and elimination of congenital abnormalities as a result of the radioactive nuclear weapons as an essential part of a broader fallout that blanketed their homes and the vast Pacific struggle to end violence, to promote harmony and Ocean, upon which they depend for their livelihoods. friendship among the peoples of the world, to achieve Entire atolls remain unsafe for habitation, justice and respect for human rights, and to ensure a agricultural production and fishing. “Some islanders safe, clean and healthy environment for the benefit of have been permanently displaced from their homes all present and future generations.

3 History The struggle for a nuclear-free and independent Pacific

rom the beginning of the nuclear age, Pacific islands have been used for the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons. The plane Enola Gay left the Micronesian island of Tinian to carry the atomic bomb to Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. The following Fyear, the United States began testing nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands.

Over the next five decades, more than 315 nuclear In the same year, the Federated States of test explosions were conducted across the region by Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Samoa and the France, Britain and the United States. Seeking “empty” Solomon Islands joined New Zealand and Australia spaces, the Western powers chose to conduct cold in taking France to the ICJ over its nuclear test war programmes of nuclear testing in the deserts of explosions in Polynesia. central Australia or the isolated atolls of the central Even since the end of nuclear testing in the and south Pacific. Missile testing ranges in the Pacific region in 1996, many Pacific island governments still provide the infrastructure for the development have continued to champion international efforts for of the intercontinental ballistic missiles that are a key nuclear disarmament. In the First Committee of the component of nuclear war preparations. UN General Assembly and in other diplomatic forums, they have argued passionately for the negotiation of a Longstanding opposition treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons, describing it as an Today many Pacific communities are living with the urgent humanitarian imperative. health and environmental impacts of this nuclear testing. Testimony from nuclear survivors in the Pacific Why a global ban has reinforced a deep concern over the humanitarian Both other types of weapons of mass destruction – impacts of nuclear weapons and widespread popular chemical and biological weapons – have long been support for a nuclear-free world. Since the 1950s, prohibited under international law. The vast majority churches, trade unions, women’s organizations and of the world’s nations believe that it is now high time customary leaders have campaigned for an end to for nuclear weapons, the most destructive weapons nuclear testing and the abolition of nuclear weapons. of all, to be similarly banned. The detonation of just Since gaining their independence from colonial one nuclear bomb over a large city could kill more powers, Pacific governments have also expressed than a million people. The use of tens or hundreds their support for nuclear disarmament. At the height could disrupt the global climate, causing widespread of the US–Soviet arms race, on Hiroshima Day in agricultural collapse and famine. 1985, members of the South Pacific Forum signed the The International Committee of the Red Cross and South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, an important various UN agencies have warned that no adequate regional contribution to global nuclear disarmament. humanitarian response would be possible in the At the 1992 World Health Assembly, the health aftermath of a nuclear attack. Given the catastrophic ministers of Tonga and Vanuatu were among the co- effects of nuclear weapons, banning and eradicating sponsors of a successful resolution first requesting an them is the only responsible course of action. Pacific advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice island nations, whose people have experienced first- (ICJ) on the legal status of the use of nuclear weapons. hand the horrific impact of nuclear testing, have long When the court addressed this question three years worked to to bring about a ban – and the international later, the Marshall Islands, Samoa and the Solomon community is now poised to declare the use, Islands made strong submissions to the court. production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons illegal.

4 BOX 1

Marshall Islands: Nuclear test survivors speak out

iving on Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands, Rinok Riklon wasL just 14 years old when the United States conducted a nuclear test on neighbouring Bikini Atoll. She was exposed to radioactive fallout from the “Bravo” nuclear test, which took place on 1 March 1954. “People were playing with the fallout as it fell from the sky,” she says. “We put it in our hair as if it was soap or shampoo. But later I lost all of my hair from it.” The test spread fallout across the northern region of the Marshall Islands. It was the largest ever conducted by the United States – estimated to be 1,000 times more powerful than the explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Inadequate compensation Under an agreement between the Marshallese nuclear test survivors speak to the press in September 2013. Credit: Nic Maclellan United States and the Marshall Islands, a nuclear claims tribunal was now in her seventies, longs for the not deny its moral responsibility established to award compensation day when she can return to her home and compensate us while we are for damage to health and property atoll. However, only one-quarter of still living. We don’t want our future from the US nuclear tests conducted Rongelap has been “rehabilitated” generations to suffer like us.” between 1946 and 1958. and made safe for habitation, while This court has made numerous the rest remains contaminated with ‘Nuclear zero’ lawsuits rulings for people from Bikini, radionuclides such as caesium-137. In a courageous move, the Enewetak, Rongelap and other atolls More than six decades after the government of the Marshall Islands but has insufficient funds to pay the “Bravo” test, people are still exiled filed landmark lawsuits in April necessary compensation. So far, only from their home island. “We have 2014 against all nine nuclear-armed US$150 million has been paid and been displaced from our homeland, nations for failing to comply with their the US government still owes more like a coconut floating in the sea with obligations under international law than US$2.3 billion to the Marshallese no place to call home,” she says. to pursue negotiations for the total people. Despite an official petition “We ask the United States for elimination of nuclear weapons. to the US Congress in 2000, the US equal treatment and to compensate More than five million people government has refused to allocate us for the suffering and damage around the world signed a petition in further compensation to meet rulings caused to us, our homes, our families support of this historic legal action. issued by the tribunal. and our island atoll.” Much to the disappointment of test Another nuclear survivor from survivors, the International Court of Living in exile, six decades on Rongelap is Nerje Joseph, who Justice, in The Hague, dismissed the Lemyo Abon was also living on hopes that the US will “right the lawsuits in October 2016, ruling that Rongelap during the 1954 “Bravo” wrong” it has done. “We were there was insufficient evidence of a test. “Immediately our drinking water promised compensation and that is dispute between the Marshall Islands turned yellowish and the food was not enough,” she says. “The nuclear and the nuclear-armed nations. bitter and tasteless,” she says. claims tribunal has made some Despite this ruling, the Marshall Over time, she joined other awards but we have not received a Islands continues to push for a villagers who were relocated from the penny. We are the few left from the nuclear-free world, being a leader in northern atolls to the main islands generation that saw the tests and the UN initiative to prohibit nuclear of Kwajalein and Majuro. Mrs Abon, suffered as a result. The US should weapons.

5 Timeline of nuclear testing in the Pacific

1940s 1950s 1960s 6 August 1945 The Enola Gay flies October 1952 The UK begins nuclear August 1963 The Partial Test Ban from Tinian Island in the Marianas testing in Australia at the Monte Bello Treaty opens for signature. It prohibits Islands to drop an atomic weapon on islands, followed by tests on the land nuclear testing in the atmosphere, the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three of the Indigenous Anangu people at outer space and under water. days later, the city of Nagasaki is also Maralinga and Emu Field. destroyed with an atomic weapon. 2 July 1966 After relocating its November 1952 The US tests the nuclear testing centre from Algeria, June 1946 The US government first hydrogen bomb, codenamed France conducts a nuclear test at begins a series of nuclear tests on “Ivy Mike”, at Enewetak Atoll in the Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia Bikini and Enewetak atolls in the Marshall Islands, with an explosive – the first of 193 atmospheric and Marshall Islands, a US-administered yield of 10 megatonnes. underground tests over 30 years. UN strategic trust territory. The testing programme involved 67 atmospheric 1 March 1954 As part of Operation 1 July 1968 The Non-Proliferation nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958. Castle, the massive “Bravo” test at Treaty is signed. Non-nuclear-weapon Bikini Atoll spreads fallout across the states agree never to acquire nuclear northern atolls of the Marshall Islands, weapons, and nuclear-weapon states including Rongelap and Utirik, as well give a legal undertaking to disarm. as a nearby Japanese fishing boat. 24 August 1968 France’s first November 1957 Between 1957 hydrogen bomb, codenamed and 1958, the UK conducted nine “Canopus”, is tested at Fangataufa atmospheric nuclear tests over Atoll in French Polynesia. Christmas Island and Malden Island (today part of the Republic of Kiribati).

Enola Gay crew members on 6 August 1945.

Iroji Kebenli suffered radiation burns to his skin in 1954 after contact with “Bikini snow” – radioactive ash from US nuclear tests.

6 Timeline of nuclear testing in the Pacific

1970s 1980s 1990s April 1975 A nuclear-free Pacific 6 August 1985 The South Pacific September 1995 After a short conference is held in Suva, Fiji, Nuclear Free Zone Treaty is opened moratorium, France resumes nuclear supported by the Pacific Conference for signature in Rarotonga, the Cook testing with six tests at Moruroa and of Churches, Against Testing Islands. The treaty prohibits the Fangataufa atolls, sparking regional on Moruroa (ATOM), and union, manufacture, stationing and testing of and international criticism. The final community and women’s groups. nuclear weapons within the zone. French nuclear test on 27 January This is the first of a series of regional 1996 marks the end of testing in the conferences for the Nuclear Free and June 1987 New Zealand’s nuclear- Pacific islands – but not the end of Independent Pacific movement that free legislation prohibits port visits by health and environmental impacts. continue for the next 30 years. nuclear-armed and -powered vessels. 24 September 1996 The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty opens for signature at the UN. China, France, the UK, Russia and the US all sign the treaty. But India says it will not join.

The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior protest ship by France in 1985. Credit: Greenpeace

The 7th Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Conference, in Suva, Fiji, 1996.

7 Public opposition Resistance to nuclear testing and the build-up of nuclear arms

rom the beginning of the nuclear age, communities across the Pacific islands have protested against nuclear weapons. There were anti-nuclear protests in French Polynesia in 1950, when the Tahitian leader Pouvanaa a Oopa – a veteran of the French army in Fboth world wars – collected signatures for the famous Stockholm Peace Appeal.

In 1954 Marshall Islanders lodged a petition with In the 1980s, churches, trade unions and community the UN Trusteeship Council requesting that “all organizations lobbied successfully for the creation of a experiments with lethal weapons in this area be South Pacific nuclear-free zone and supported nuclear- immediately ceased”. They were “not only fearful free legislation in countries such as Vanuatu, Palau and of the danger to their persons from these deadly New Zealand. weapons”, but “also concerned for the increasing number of people removed from their land”. Strong public opposition today In 1956, after the UK government announced that Even after the end of French nuclear testing in 1996, British nuclear testing would commence at Christmas citizen groups continued to campaign against nuclear Island, Western Samoa petitioned the Trusteeship weapons, and called on the nuclear powers to address Council to halt the tests. (At the time, Samoa was still the health and environmental impacts of past testing. a trust territory of New Zealand.) The same year, the Former military and civilian personnel who staffed Rarotonga Island Council submitted a report to the the test sites in the Pacific continue to campaign for Cook Islands Legislative Council expressing concern clean-up of contaminated islands and compensation and asking “that the testing area be situated at some for people affected by exposure to radiation. greater distance than the Cook Islands”. People from affected nations have increased their In 1957 the Fijian newspaper Jagriti noted: “Nations campaigning in recent years: Fijian soldiers and sailors engaged in testing these bombs in the Pacific should seeking compensation for the effects of nuclear tests realize the value of the lives of the people settled in at Christmas Island; the lobbying of Moruroa e Tatou, this part of the world. They too are human beings, not which links the former test site workers from Moruroa ‘guinea pigs’.” and Fangataufa, to strengthen French compensation In 1975 the Pacific Conference of Churches joined laws; Australian veterans of the atmospheric tests at other groups in hosting the first Nuclear Free Pacific Maralinga, Emu Field and the Monte Bello Islands conference, in Suva, Fiji. The cause of disarmament campaigning for pension rights from the Australian was linked to the right to self-determination, with and British governments; and the Marshall Islands the delegate from New Hebrides stating: “The main government lodging a “changed circumstances” objective of this conference is to end nuclear tests petition to the US Congress, seeking to increase the in the Pacific, but the more we discuss it, it becomes level of compensation provided by the US for damage obvious that the main cause is colonialism.” to people and property caused by US nuclear tests. By 1980 the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Over the past decade, a number of non- (NFIP) movement had established a secretariat in governmental organizations in the Pacific have signed Hawai’i – the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre. The up as partners in the International Campaign to movement campaigned against nuclear testing, the Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Their represenatives have dumping of nuclear waste in the Pacific Ocean, the participated in campaign strategy meetings around the transport of nuclear materials through fishing grounds, world and spoken at intergovernmental conferences on and the mining of uranium on Indigenous land. the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons

8 BOX 4

Above: Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific protesters in Fiji, 1996. Right: A T-shirt rejecting nuclear weapons and waste in the Pacific. Below: Inauguration of nuclear testing memorial in Tahiti, 2012.

9 BOX 2

Human security: Women building a more peaceful Pacific

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls the exclusion, marginalization and of the Convention on the Elimination Executive Director, FemLINKpacific invisibility of women at all levels of of Discrimination Against Women, decision-making, which is detrimental and development of collaborative enerations of Pacific island to human security. However, women partnerships between local, women have voiced concern are not just passive victims of national and regional organizations. aboutG the humanitarian impact of violence and inequality; women have Responding effectively to the nuclear weapons: nuclear fallout been making significant contributions complex and multifaceted threats in the oceans, health and genetic to human security within families, and challenges to human security in damage, environmental pollution, communities and nations. Our work the Pacific requires the participation, impacts on the food chain and the dates back to the early days of recognition and valuing of the forced migration of peoples. the Fiji Young Women’s Christian experiences and role of women. FemLINKpacific, as a member Association, which provided the It is vital that there is support for of the Global Partnership for the nurturing ground for the Nuclear Free a strong Pacific island movement Prevention of Armed Conflict and and Independent Pacific movement. against nuclear weapons. We should ICAN, reaffirms that the catastrophic We are keen to see linkages exert pressure for the reallocation humanitarian consequences of within the broader efforts of conflict of funds currently devoted to nuclear weapons are a reality for the prevention and human security and militaries to human security needs, Pacific island region, which continues security sector governance so that implementing the Sustainable to bear the impact of the use and governments actively work in close Development Goals and preparing testing of nuclear weapons. cooperation with civil society in for security threats such as climate In the Pacific, as well as globally, disarmament and non-proliferation change. When women feel secure, unequal power relations, intolerance, machinery, including for the peace is possible. When women lack of respect and valuing, and elimination of nuclear weapons. feel secure enough to resist war lack of access to and control over Women are “waging peace”, and organize for peace – expressed resources characterize the position which needs to be supported by through theatre, community media, of women relative to men. This fuels implementation of UN Security public demonstrations and civil the pervasive nature of violence and Council resolution 1325, ratification disobedience – peace is on its way.

BOX 3

Red Cross: Nuclear weapons must be prohibited and eliminated

ed Cross societies from the is a pressing one for Pacific island Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the nations, who have experienced their Filipe Nainoca RFederated States of Micronesia, New devastating effects through testing: Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, “Though the bombs may have been Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu have detonated many years ago, their joined their counterparts in other effects live on in our hearts, our nations to call for a total ban on minds and our homes forever.” nuclear weapons. They have spoken The autumn 2015 issue of the out against the “continued retention International Review of the Red of tens of thousands of nuclear Cross focuses on the “human cost warheads, the proliferation of such of nuclear weapons” and includes weapons and the constant risk that a paper by the Australian public they could again be used”. health physician Tilman Ruff on Filipe Nainoca, the director- the radioactive contamination, general of Fiji Red Cross, believes displacement and transgenerational that the issue of nuclear weapons harm from Pacific nuclear testing.

10 Health impact The long-term effects of nuclear testing in the Pacific

uring and after US, British and French nuclear testing in the Pacific, radioactive fallout was dispersed in the Pacific region and globally, adding to global radiation risk and cancer burden. Hazards were greatest for the military and civilian personnel who Dstaffed the test sites, as well as villagers living on nearby and downwind islands.

Years later, many of these nuclear test survivors are caesium-137 from the soil and this hazard continues suffering health problems related to their exposure on Rongelap Atoll and other contaminated islands to radiation from the explosions. In all cases where to this day. To avoid exposure to this contamination, adequate health studies of participants in atmospheric some nuclear survivors have been exiled from their nuclear tests have been undertaken, adverse health home islands for decades. consequences have been demonstrated, even many decades later. Increased rates of cancer, including “In the immediate aftermath of the blood cancer (leukaemia), have been found among nuclear testing, white ash fell from the nuclear test veterans from the UK, the US, Australia, sky, and shortly thereafter people began France and New Zealand. Test veterans from Pacific to experience skin burns, hair loss, islands such as Fiji faced no lesser hazards. finger discolouration, nausea and other Downwind communities in the Marshall Islands symptoms of acute radiation poisoning. bore the brunt of acute radiation sickness and direct They also [suffered from] ailments organ radiation damage related to high radiation that they had never experienced exposure, as well as long-term cancer risks including before, including cancers and growth increased rates of thyroid cancer. As well as direct retardation in children.” exposure to radioactive fallout, they confront long- – UN Special Rapporteur, 2012 term contaminated environments and food sources. They also face ongoing psychological stress and In French Polynesia, researchers investigating anxiety and concern for subsequent generations. Some thyroid cancer have reported an increasing risk with in Micronesia and Polynesia have also been subjected increasing thyroid dose received before the age of to the profound health impacts of dislocation. 15 years. A 2010 study in the British Journal of Cancer Environmental studies have documented serious levels notes that, while the risk is low, “the release of of continuing radioactive contamination at test sites. information on exposure, currently classified, would The nuclear-weapon states have been willing not greatly improve the reliability of the risk estimation”. only to expose people to direct fallout and contaminate Much relevant health-related data for test workers their homes and food sources, but also leave and downwind communities has either not been substantial quantities of long-lived radionuclides in appropriately collected, or been covered up. fractured underground and underwater environments. A 2012 report by the UN special rapporteur on the These warrant major remediation works and require implications for human rights of the environmentally indefinite monitoring. They have generally failed sound management and disposal of hazardous to adequately assess the long-term consequences, substances and wastes found: “Displacement due to undertake thorough clean-up of nuclear test sites the nuclear testing, especially of inhabitants from and minimize risk of leakage of radionuclides into Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utirik atolls, has the biosphere. In the Marshall Islands, food plants created nomads who are disconnected from their lands such as breadfruit and coconut take up radioactive and their cultural and indigenous way of life.”

11 BOX 4

Moruroa Atoll: Clean-up workers unprotected from radiation

eraivetea Raymond Taha was just 16 years old when he started workingT on Moruroa Atoll, the site of France’s nuclear testing centre in the South Pacific. “I left school at 12 years of age after my father died, as I had to help out the family,” he explained. “At that time, the Pacific Testing Centre needed a lot of workers. For most Polynesians like me who started work in those years, it was the first time we would have a job and money in our pocket.” A French nuclear test in 1968 at Fangataufa Atoll. No protection for workers Like other Maohi (Polynesian) workers at the centre, Raymond was involved In 1980 Raymond’s daughter, Of the eight cases, only three in clean-up operations. He recalled Cinya, was born, the only girl of five of the survivors were present on the aftermath of an atmospheric test children. She died a year later from the opening day of hearings. The in September 1966 on Moruroa Atoll: complications with a malformed other five workers had died of “We had to pick up all the dead fish lung. In 1994 Raymond was radiation-related illnesses and were and clean up all the debris that littered diagnosed with leukaemia and sent represented in court by their family the roads.” on a stretcher to a hospital in Paris, members. Raymond has since The staff of the Radiological Safety where he underwent two years of passed away, his claim unfulfilled. Service were testing the soil with their chemotherapy. John Taroanui Doom, secretary apparatus. “They were all dressed of the Moruroa e Tatou association, in special outfits with gloves and a Seeking compensation has said that French legislation to mask. We Maohi workers were just In 2009, for the first time, compensate nuclear survivors, known following on behind them, without compensation cases were lodged as the Morin law, is too restrictive: any special gear to protect us,” he in Tahiti for Maohi workers who “So far, the association has begun recounted. “The bosses said: ‘It’s staffed the test sites. Raymond’s to compile case files for former OK, you can go over there.’ We were case was one of eight lodged Moruroa workers, of whom 146 scared, but if we’d refused, we would before the Tribunal de Travail in the have already died. But our workers have been on the next plane back to capital, Papeete – a court which can don’t have the documents required Tahiti. We would have lost our job, so determine if his illness was caused in to win the court case, and very few we went ahead cleaning up without the course of his employment in an have received any recognition or asking any questions.” unsafe workplace. compensation.”

The inhabitants of Rongelap Atoll were evacuated Another important health problem unrelated from their homes in 1946, returned in 1957 and, to radiation is ciguatera fish poisoning, a common ultimately, moved voluntarily from Rongelap in 1985 problem in the Pacific. Certain dinoflagellate algae on the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior. produce toxins, which accumulate up the food chain The US Congress has allocated US$45 million to a in fish and can poison people when eaten. These algae Rongelap resettlement trust fund for the partial clean- proliferate on dead and damaged coral surfaces. Large up on the main island of the atoll. But less than 10 per increases in ciguatera as well as dramatic outbreaks cent of Rongelap, Rongerik and Ailinginae atolls have over a number of years occurred in the Marshall been remediated, and exiled residents are calling for Islands and French Polynesia related to reef damage more comprehensive efforts before they return. caused by nuclear test programmes.

12 BOX 5

Kiritimati: Decades on, physical and emotional wounds remain

ui Kiritome is a citizen of the muffle the sound of the blast. Just Fijian test veterans Republic of Kiribati, a group of after the blast, the captain came Hundreds of Fijian soldiers and sailors 33S atolls spanning the equator in the to my husband and invited us to witnessed Britain’s atmospheric tests central Pacific. During the 1950s, accompany him to the deck to see at Christmas Island. With the British Kiribati was a British colony, and what happened,” she recalls. government refusing to compensate Britain conducted a series of nuclear “We went up on deck and we saw them for the harm to their health, the tests at Malden Island and Christmas everyone on deck wearing protective Fijian government decided in 2015 to Island (now called Kiritimati Island). clothes … We went on deck wearing offer compensation itself. There were a number of Gilbertese normal clothes. We were watching Upon announcing the scheme, plantation workers on Kiritimati, the black cloud and smoke from the Fiji’s prime minister, Frank as Britain established a military blast, which was drifting towards Bainimarama, said: “We salute you for base to support its nuclear testing us. When it came overhead, I felt following your orders at the time – the programme in 1957–58. Mrs Kiritome something like a light shower falling orders of a colonial power pursuing witnessed the nuclear test explosion on me. I thought it was rain.” its own agenda in the world. You are codenamed “Grapple Y” in April When she arrived home later that living testament to our determination 1958, a 3-megatonne detonation that day, she noticed the door and glass to never again allow our pristine sent fallout across the British naval windows in their house were broken. Pacific environment to be violated by task force and the military camp on The concrete wall was cracked, outside powers in such a destructive Christmas Island. and the pet frigate bird was running and terrible manner.” around the house blind. One of the soldiers to witness the No protection from fallout “Some time after the test, explosions was the prime minister’s Local inhabitants of the island were something happened to my head and father, Ratu Inoke Bainimarama, informed “just before the test” that face. Every time when I combed my who led an initial group of 39 Fijians it was about to take place, she hair, I was losing strands of my hair deployed for the test programme. explains. They were told to get on and something like burns developed Many Fijian troops were placed in a British warship, where “a movie on my face, scalp and parts of my hazardous locations, which increased was shown, and sweets were shared shoulder,” she recalls. the risk of exposure to ionizing around”. Mrs Kiritome’s husband was “My face was the worst affected radiation. After each test, they were an interpreter for the British military because I was looking up at the involved in clean-up operations, and helped explain to the islanders black cloud from the blast, which including disposing of thousands what was happening. was directly above us when the light of birds that were maimed, blinded “When the countdown to the blast shower fell on my face … The mark or killed in the nuclear explosions. began, my husband told the people remains on my face till today. It has They were ordered to dump drums of to put their hands to their ears to been there for 40 years or so now.” radioactive waste into the ocean.

Sui Kiritome

Fijian soldiers at the Christmas Island military camp for the 1957–8 British nuclear tests.

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Australia: A nation that dishonours its nuclear test survivors

or many Australians, nuclear The Australian government’s children who died around the time weapons are not a distant, position stands in stark contrast to of the tests. And these were just abstractF threat, but a lived reality that of Pacific island states, who have the non-Aboriginal children. There’s – a persistent source of pain and been motivated to speak out against no record of how many Aboriginal suffering, of contamination and nuclear weapons based on their children died. The Aboriginals were dislocation. Indigenous communities, first-hand experience of the weapons’ not allowed to be buried in white long marginalized and mistreated catastrophic humanitarian impact. cemeteries.” in Australia, bear the brunt of this In 2006, Coleman-Haseldine went ongoing scourge. Radioactive racism to an Australian Nuclear Free Alliance From 1952 to 1963, Britain, The Australian nuclear test survivor meeting to learn more about radiation with the active participation of the Sue Coleman-Haseldine, of the fallout, and was devastated when Australian government, conducted 12 Kokatha-Mula nation, provided she found out that bush foods being major nuclear test explosions and up testimony at the Vienna conference consumed by her community were to 600 so-called “minor trials” in the on the humanitarian impact of nuclear possibly contaminated. South Australian outback and off the weapons in December 2014. “There are many Aboriginal people West Australian coast. “Atomic bomb tests began in the who cannot go back to their ancestral Radioactive contamination from desert areas north of my birthplace in lands, and their children and their the tests was detected across much 1953 when I was two years old – first children’s children and so on will of the continent. At the time and for at Emu Field and then Maralinga. The never know the special religious decades after, the authorities denied, area was picked because the British places it contains. ignored and covered up the health and Australian governments didn’t “We want nuclear weapons dangers. The “minor trials” dispersed think our land was valuable. But permanently banned and the uranium 24.4 kg of plutonium in 50,000 Aboriginal people were still looking that can create them left in the fragments, beryllium, and 8 tonnes of after and living off the land,” she said. ground. If you love your own children uranium. Little was done to protect “There are lots of different and care for the children of the world, the 16,000 or so test site workers, Aboriginal groups in Australia. For you will find the courage to stand up and even less to protect nearby all of us, our land is the basis of and say ‘enough’ – always keeping in Indigenous communities. our culture. It is our supermarket mind that the future forever belongs Today, survivors suffer from higher for our food, our pharmacy for our to the next generation.” rates of cancer than the general medicine, our school and our church. population due to their exposure to Aboriginal people have special places radiation. Only a few have ever been throughout Australia, including in the compensated. Much of the traditional vast arid areas. Looking after these land used for the blasts remains places is our religion. radioactive and off limits to this day. “Our old people remember the Nuclear test survivors have good life of hunting for wild game repeatedly urged the Australian and collecting bush fruits. Life was government to support a global healthy. There were still Aboriginal ban on nuclear weapons, but it has people living and travelling this way ignored their pleas. It insists that in the Emu Field and Maralinga region these ultimate weapons of terror and when the bomb tests started. The mass destruction are necessary for government was no good at ensuring Australia’s defence and prosperity. everyone was safe.” It shelters under the so-called The first atomic bomb, called “nuclear umbrella” of the United “Totem 1”, spread far and wide and States, and has strongly opposed there are many stories about the moves towards a treaty prohibiting “black mist” it created, she said, nuclear weapons. In 2016 it “which killed, blinded and made attempted to derail the UN working people very sick”. group on nuclear disarmament in “There’s a cemetery at Woomera Sue Coleman-Haseldine Geneva, much to the disappointment [in South Australia] which we call the in Vienna in 2014. of neighbouring nations. children’s cemetery. It’s filled with

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Humanitarian conferences: Pacific island states demand action

acific island states played an convention. “A treaty banning the testing to the International Court of active role in the three major use, manufacture and possession of Justice in 1973 and again in 1995. intergovernmentalP conferences in nuclear weapons is long overdue.” “Even today, we remain alert to the 2013 and 2014 on the humanitarian Nuclear-free nations, which consequences for the New Zealand impact of nuclear weapons. At the make up the vast majority of the environment of the tests which were first conference, hosted by Norway, international community, should not carried out in the Pacific.” Entirely as Fiji informed delegates of the long sit back and wait for nuclear-armed a result of the testing, New Zealand struggle against nuclear testing in nations to lead the way. “We must set continues monthly radiation testing of the Pacific: “The nuclear issue is the agenda,” they said. its milk products and similar analysis not a new thing to Fiji. Between the Jeban Riklon, a senator from the of rainwater samples every week. 1960s and 1990s, we were part of a Marshall Islands, also addressed the campaign against nuclear testing in conference, providing his personal Learning from the Pacific the Pacific ... Anti-nuclear protests testimony. “I was only two years Samoa spoke at the third conference led to the Pacific adopting the South old [at the time of the Castle Bravo on the humanitarian impact of nuclear Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty.” test], but I grew up to witness and weapons, held in Austria in December Fiji expressed the view that experience the unforgettable human 2014. It said that the testimonies “nuclear weapons serve no useful consequences of the fallout,” he said. of survivors “drive and incentivize purpose in the world in this day and “When you spend your whole important discussions like this one age but rather exist only as a risk that life seeing that much physical and and move us closer to the ultimate could lead to human catastrophes of emotional pain, your tears dry up goal of a nuclear-free world for our unprecedented proportions”. and you force yourself to question future generations”. It voiced support The Cook Islands warned of the intentions, justice and human value. for a treaty banning nuclear weapons, potential for catastrophic accidents Many of our survivors became human but cautioned against including at former nuclear test sites in the subjects in laboratories, and almost burdensome reporting requirements. Pacific, particularly Moruroa Atoll in 60 years on we are still suffering. Abacca Anjain-Maddison, a former French Polynesia. It urged all nations “You see, no one fully understands senator from the Marshall Islands, to heed the call of the International the human costs of nuclear weapons said that her people were used as Committee of the Red Cross to testing. The irony is that when the “guinea pigs”. Women living in the negotiate an instrument to prohibit people of Bikini Atoll were asked to vicinity of the nuclear test explosions and eliminate nuclear weapons. give up their islands for the testing, had numerous miscarriages, she they were told that it was ‘for the recounted. “They gave birth to A united Pacific voice good of mankind’.” jellyfish- and monster-like babies. At the second humanitarian New Zealand told delegates that They had thyroid cancer, liver cancer conference, hosted by Mexico in it had worked to stop nuclear testing and all types of radiogenic cancers February 2014, the Pacific island in its neighbourhood, including by … Let us learn from the experience of states of Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, taking a case against French nuclear the Marshallese people.” Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu spoke with a united voice in favour of negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons. “The discussions here should lead us all to the same conclusion: that nuclear weapons must be outlawed and eliminated without delay,” they said in their joint statement. “As Pacific island nations, we understand all too well the devastating impact of nuclear weapons.” They argued that it is unacceptable that “the deadliest Abacca Anjain-Maddison weapons of all” are the only weapons speaks in Melbourne in 2016. of mass destruction not yet expressly prohibited by an international

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Rarotonga Treaty: The South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone

t the height of the nuclear powers also undertake not to use or armed vessels. However, Australia arms race between the US and threaten to use any nuclear device and New Zealand lobbied to ensure ASoviet Union, a treaty to create a against countries in the zone, and not that the zone would not constrain South Pacific nuclear-free zone was to test nuclear devices in the zone. deployments by their ANZUS ally, the opened for signature on Hiroshima Some Pacific island nations US. An Australian Cabinet submission Day in 1985, at the South Pacific such as Papua New Guinea and in April 1985 noted: “The proposal Forum meeting in Rarotonga, the the Solomon Islands sought a more is designed to maintain the security Cook Islands. The Rarotonga Treaty comprehensive nuclear-free zone that advantages afforded to the South was negotiated after decades of would ban activities such as missile West Pacific through the ANZUS campaigning by unions, Pacific testing or port visits by nuclear- Treaty and the United States security churches and the Nuclear Free and presence in the region.” Independent Pacific movement. The Russia and China were first to governments of Fiji, New Zealand sign the protocols, in 1986 and 1987 and Papua New Guinea had co- respectively, pledging not to store or sponsored a UN resolution in 1975 test nuclear weapons in the region calling for such a treaty. or use them against Australia, New Zealand or island nations. France, Obligations under the treaty Britain and the United States refused Under the treaty, countries in the to sign the treaty protocols for a zone commit never to develop decade, only signing on 25 March nuclear weapons. There are also 1996 after the end of French nuclear three protocols, where nuclear states testing at Moruroa and Fangataufa with territories in the zone (France, atolls. Until now, however, the US Britain and the United States) agree government has failed to ratify its to apply the treaty to their territories. Anti-nuclear protesters in Rarotonga, the signature by passing legislation In accepting the protocols, all nuclear Cook Islands, in 1995. Credit: Greenpeace through the US Senate.

Time for action to abolish nuclear weapons Many Pacific island nations have expressed their nuclear weapons exist, there is a real danger that they disappointment and frustration at the slow rate of will be used again – whether by accident or design – progress currently being made towards a nuclear- and the consequences will be catastrophic. weapon-free world. The nuclear-armed nations, despite This is why Pacific island states are working hard being legally obliged to pursue negotiations “in good for a ban on these worst weapons of terror and mass faith” for nuclear disarmament, have so far failed to destruction. In recent years, they have helped build present a clear road map to elimination. Instead, all momentum for the start of negotiations, joining other are investing heavily in the modernization of their nations in highlighting the humanitarian impact of nuclear forces, with the apparent intention of retaining nuclear weapons. They have put forth ideas on what them for many decades to come. Continued failure the ban should entail – determined to ensure that no on nuclear disarmament is not an option. So long as one else ever suffers as their people have suffered.

16 The mushroom cloud from “Romeo”, an 11-megatonne hydrogen bomb detonated by the US, rises over Bikini Atoll in March 1954. “For the sake of present and future generations, we must free the world of the nuclear menace. Pacific island states stand ready to join multilateral negotiations towards this end.”

– Fiji, Nauru, Palau, Samoa and Tuvalu, 2016