From mosa@netcom.com  Mon Nov 20 11:47:24 1995
From: mosa@netcom.com (Michele Lord)
To: dave@sgi


Date: Mon, 20 Nov 1995 13:40:10 +0100
Reply-To: indknow@u.washington.edu
Sender: INDKNOW-owner@u.washington.edu
Precedence: bulk
From: Birgit Spinella <b.spinella@public.ndh.com>
To: environews@envirolink.org, gars@netcom.com (Gary Smith),
        indknow@u.washington.edu, eirp@listproc.wsu.edu
Subject: Mururoa - Nuclear Colony

 
                D A V I D   A G A I N S T   G O L I A T H

The first settlement of these islands was probably around 200 B.C.,
beginning with the Marquesas islands, followed by Raiatea. During the 7th
centura A.D. other parts of Polynesia, including Hawaii, New Zealand (where
the indigenous are called Maori), Tonga and Samoa were settled. the
polynesian peoples build excellent boats and where called the "vikings of
the Southern sea". They called boats their own, which where long about 40
meters and 200 people could travel on them.


The indigenous populations in New Kaledonia, after having vegetated in a
kind of cultural vacuum for one hundred years, had been colonized by
forcible means and made economically more dependent than ever on the
"mother-country" at a time when practically all other colonial peoples
around the globe have attained independence. The early post-european history
does not differ much from elsewhere in the Pacific, with the exception that
explorers, whalers and missionaries arrived earlier and in greater number
and thus destroyed the indigenous cultures more extensively. Two islands,
Tahiti and Moorea, the most fertile ones suffered most.

As missionaries in Hawaii, Fiji, and Tonga had done before, the protestant
missionaries who settled there in 1797 took sides in the local power
struggles and supported POMARE II, who was bent on killing off his rivals in
order to become the chief. At the age of forty, he died in 1821, as a result
of his heavy drinking. The traditional political system, based on a balance
of power among two dozen chiefs, was accomplished twenty years later, by the
French take-over. From 1844 to 1846, the Tahitian warriors, hid in the
mountains, waged a militarily successful guerilla war, which they lost then
through dissension among themselves. During the next decade, all hereditary
chiefs were replaced by government henchmen who were called "ouioui" by the
Tahitians, as they were nothing more, but messengers for the governor.

In 1880 the protectorate was transformed into a colony called the French
establishments in Oceania. this did not change anything as this was only the
formal regognition of an already long existing "de facto" situation. The
navy officers who had been in charge until then were then replaced by
civilian officials, and the boundaries of the new colony were extended to
include the MARQUESAS, TUAMOTU (Mururoa is part of it) and Gambier groups,
but no attempts were made to govern and settle these large islands whose
indigenous populations had long since been civilized literally to death
(minimized to a fraction of their former number) by catholic missionaries.

In world war II the majority of Europeans and Chinese settlers in French
Polynesia felt that they were needed right there. More than a thousand
Polynesians tried to enlist in the French forces. Three hundred of them were
accepted and fought in a unit called the "Guitarist Battalion". The 200
lucky ones of them who returned alive were celebrated like heroes, but did
not go back to their taro patches and fishing grounds. They had seen the
world and did not find the local way of doing things very satisfactory.
Their chosen spokesman, a Polynesian veteran from world war I, Pouvanaa a
Oopa, had been a critic of wrong-doings and injustices, especially those
committed against his own people. He gave the frustrations of the new
generation of war veterans a new, political dimension by pointing out that
there was no hope for redress unless the whole system was changed. His words
were regarded as treason by the governor, who threw him and his most eager
followers into jail for five months.

Today around one million of people speak one of the native Polynesian
languages, which belongs to the group of Austronesian languages. The
official language is French. Due to the early arrival of protestant
missionaries, more than half of the Tahitians are protestant, about one
quarter belongs to the roman catholic church, 6 % are mormons, 2 &
adventists and a small amount of testimonies of Jehova and Buddhists
(chinese population). The Polynesian people have a strong bodily structure
and are beautiful, they have black eyes and a copper-tone skin color; hair
is black and even. the most important thing in family life are the children.
The MAHU, the male transvestites are respected members of the villages.
During his first years of life, he plays with girls and helps doing
household things. A mahu is not necessarily homosexuell. In every communtity
can be only one. With modern life in Papeete and with the tourism, the mahus
today are victims of homosexuell prostitution.

Most of the traditional festivities are lost nowadays. The greatest
festivity today is the celebration of the French National Day on July 14th.
A mostly rootless indigenous population in search of their own identity with
a percentual large drop out of school-students. only 18,7 % of the pupils
reach the diploma class, due to the French school system that does not care
about indigenous ways of thinking, tradition and culture. For a short time
now, Mahoi language is taught in public schools.

The Maohi people say that the nuclear bomb testing is dangerous to their
health conditions. Again and again they tell that friends and relatives have
to fly to France for an oncological treatment. Nobody knows the exact amount
of those sick people. the people are afraid, especially those who worked for
the CEP on Mururoa. One former Maohi-worker from CEP, Manarii Teuira, told
that between 1966 to 1972 three of his colleagues died, because they had
eaten fish which they had caught in the laguna. First they lost their hair,
then had some skin desease and later died in a hospital in Paris. Aitoa
Tanematea, who came to Mururoa in 1976 ate fish from the laguna, caught
diarrhea, high temperature, lost his hair, festering skin wounds. Later on
the skin peeled off and one of his eyes had to be removed during a surgery.
He suffered from weakness of memory and speech disorder.

A woman whose husband worked between 1969 and 1974 on Mururoa, explained in
1985 to the European parlamentarian Dorothee Piermont that she had six
misscarriages in succession. Shortly after the birth of her seventh child
the skin peeled off. Many represantatives from polynesian churches,
environmental organizations, political parties, with them the minister for
health Jacqui Drollet demanded in august 1988 the establishment of an
radiometer-institute under the control of the   W H O   that should examine
coherence between the cancer rates and the nuclear fallout. They also
suggested to control  regularily the health conditions of the 12000 Maohi
people working on Mururoa.

It was extremly difficult to find appropriate information. The Pacific
Concerns Resource Centre at Suva, Fiji can be reached by fax: +679-304-755.
Another office of the PCRC is at Sydney/AU. I did not check out, if they
have e-mail.

Birgit
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
WorkGroup on Indigenous Issues Cologne 
LPSG-Cologne
             
  See our exciting homepage:   
                            http://www.ndh.com/home/spinella/circle.html


<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>