The struggle for a nuclear-free Pacific

Press, 30 May 1989, Page 15

The struggle for a nuclear-free Pacific

On August 6, 1985, members of the Pacific Forum met in the Raratonga Hotel for an historic meeting. When the meeting was over, eight of the 13 leaders present had endorsed and signed the Raratonga Treaty, which declared the forum’s region a nuclearfree zone.

It was 40 years, to the day from the atomic explosion which devastated Hiroshima.

The ink was hardly dry on the treaty before dissent within the Forum became public. Within a day, despite an assurance from the

forum’s spokesman, David Lange, that every forum member would sign the document, Vanuatu Prime Minister, Father Walter Lini, declared his country would not sign — at least until the treaty was watertight. The region’s news media quickly lost interest in the issues raised by the treaty, but tonight’s “Tuesday Documentary: Niuklia Frl Pasifik” (8.30 on One), sets about rattling the Skeltons in the forum’s closet with an incisive and entertaining look at the evolution of the nuclearfree Pacific ideal.