French tests worry P.N.G.

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 14

French tests worry P.N.G.

NZPA Port Moresby The Papua New Guinea Government will ask Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific governments to confirm the accuracy of alleged health dangers posed by France’s nuclear tests on Mururoa Atoll. The leader of the Australian Democrats. Senator Don Chipp, asserted in Canberra this week that nuclear tests had increased the incidence of cancer and other diseases.

Senator Chipp said there had been an alarming in? crease in incidence of leukemia, brain cancers, and other illnesses due to the nuclear tests on Mururoa. P.N.G.'s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Rabbie Namaliu, said yesterday that his Government was concerned about the reports. It was in the

interests of the pacific community to know whether Senator Chipp's claim was accurate. -

"If the health of future generations of Pacific people is . being jeopardised by the nuclear testing programme, we have an obligation to do all in our power to persuade ’ France to abandon the tests.” said Mr Namaliu. . “The French Administration's extraordinary action in - refusing- to divulge health ' statistics for Polynesian residents can only be viewed with suspicion." Mr Namaliu said successive P.N.G. governments had been "firmly opposed" to nuclear testing in the Pacific,.' and he noted that the recent; South Pacific Forum in New .1 Zealand again condemned; “any form of nuclear experi- S ments in the region."