Petitions Protesting N-Tests Inundate Paris Post Office

Environmentalists opposed to France’s nuclear tests in the South Pacific swamped the main post office Saturday with hundreds of bundles of petitions addressed to President Jacques Chirac.

Worldwide, nations condemned the underground blast Friday on Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia - France’s third nuclear test in a series that began in September. On Thursday, Chirac said there probably would be six tests in all, down from eight as originally planned.

About 50 Greenpeace activists took the main post office near the Louvre by surprise Saturday, depositing what the group said was 2-1/2 tons of protest petitions with 7 million signatures from all over the world.

The packages of letters, sent by registered mail, were all addressed to Chirac at the Elysee Palace.

The hundreds of packages amounted to a huge headache for postal workers - and the government. In France, no postage is required for letters to the president.

“We expected Chirac to finally listen to the world protest,” Greenpeace spokeswoman Fransce Verdeuzeldonk said.