Episcopal Press and News
Church Groups Unite to Condemn French Nuclear Test Plans
Episcopal News Service. August 31, 1995 [95-1209]
(ENS) Church groups and individuals have joined in a worldwide effort to convince the French government to abandon its plans for the detonation of nuclear weapons at Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
Since late July, when Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning endorsed the Anglican Peace and Justice Network's (APJN) condemnation of the French government's decision to resume nuclear testing in September, many other organizations have issued protests similar to the APJN statement, which called France's move "a backwards step" that is "dangerous and disturbing." Groups have included the Pacific Conference of Churches, the Christian Conference of Asia, the Conference of European Churches, the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Lutheran World Federation.
The signers of the APJN statement declared that they could not "conceive how, with the cold war over, any country would want to continue in the further development of these weapons." Following the spread of nuclear weapons over 50 years, "our focus should be on the disbanding of all nuclear weapons everywhere," the statement urged. "This decision by France abdicates all common sense and makes that nation a pariah in the international community." The statement also accused France of cowardice because the testing affects "the lives of people of the Pacific and its environment thousands of miles from the shores of France."
A World Council of Churches (WCC) initiative included a mail campaign that asked individuals to send French president Jacques Chirac a postcard depicting a nuclear explosion, emblazoned with the French words "In the name of God -- No." The postcard includes a message quoted from a letter sent by the WCC's general secretary, Konrad Raiser, to Chirac soon after the announcement of the planned resumption of the tests. "You have called your decision 'irrevocable'," Raiser wrote. "We nonetheless appeal insistently that you reverse it immediately. It is not in its nuclear deterrent that France will find its greatness."
Brenda FitzPatrick, communications officer for the WCC's unit on Sharing and Service, said the purpose of the postcard was not only to pressure the French government to cancel the tests but also "to give people who care about the issue a practical action they can take." She said that the postcards were part of "a groundswell" by people around the world who opposed the tests.
According to FitzPatrick, her unit originally ordered only 5,000 copies of the postcard, but demand became so great that the order was increased to 12 times that number. She said that the biggest order -- for 24,000 postcards -- had been made by Swedish Church Aid. She noted that the French development and human rights group, Cimade, had asked for 1,000 postcards.
The Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism has taken yet another approach to the attempt to influence the French decision by calling for an "immediate, total and unconditional global boycott of the French travel industry." The organization called on tourists to target global French travel companies, including Air France, and the French hotel chains Le Meridien, Club Med, Accor and Sofitel. It also called for the boycott to include all "French tour operators and agencies." The organization declared that the "boycott will last until such time as there is clear and unambiguous evidence that France has comprehensively and permanently withdrawn its plans for nuclear testing worldwide." It asserted that the French decision "flies in the face of world opinion, is an act of naked military aggression, and an assault against the people and ecology of the region. We reject and condemn France's nuclear offensive in the Pacific."
Members of the coalition on Third World tourism, which has its headquarters in Bangkok, include the Christian Conference of Asia, the Federation of Asian (Roman Catholic) Bishops' Conferences, the All Africa Council of Churches, the Pacific Conference of Churches, the Middle East Council of Churches, and the Latin American Council of Churches.