South Pacific Chiefs Outraged By N-Test

New Guinea The leaders of 16 South Pacific nations unanimously expressed “extreme outrage” Thursday at France’s resumption of nuclear testing in the Pacific.

The protest came hours after French commandos arrested two Tahitian activists who paddled a traditional Polynesian canoe into the exclusion zone around the test site.

In their strongest statement yet, the heads of state of the South Pacific Forum demanded that France stop its nuclear tests.

They called on France to sign and ratify the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty and to “accept full and exclusive responsibility for any adverse impact from French testing on the Pacific environment and people.”

Leaders attending the meeting came from Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomons, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western Samoa.