France should apologize for decades of nuclear tests in French Polynesia: Parliamentary report

ISTANBUL

A new French parliamentary report urges Paris to apologize for its decades of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.

"The investigation reinforced the conviction of the parliamentary commission of inquiry that France must issue an apology to French Polynesia," said the report issued Tuesday by the commission of inquiry.

Describing the apology as a "measured act," the report’s authors proposed that it should be written into a 2004 law that grants autonomous status to French Polynesia, according to broadcaster RFI.

"This request is not merely symbolic, nor is it a plea for repentance. It must be a sincere gesture, a fundamental step in a reconciliation process between French Polynesia and the French State," the report says.

The report also suggests the establishment of a commission of historians and researchers to “undertake an in-depth study of all archives related to France’s nuclear testing policy in French Polynesia."

Between 1966 and 1996, France carried out 193 nuclear tests in Polynesia, leading local people to be exposed to harmful levels of radiation for three decades.