France Reacts To Tough Opposition; May Cut One Of Eight Nuclear Tests Underground Series Planned For Atoll In French Polynesia

Stung by environmental protests and economic boycotts, France said Saturday it may drop one of eight planned nuclear tests in the South Pacific.

Michel Barnier, minister of European affairs, told the Sunday newspaper Le Journal de Dimanche that the final test might not be held.

“One must remember that these tests constitute the very last series, limited to a maximum seven or eight,” Barnier said. “Maybe we won’t do the eighth.”

The underground tests, which would end a three-year moratorium, are scheduled to begin next month on an atoll in French Polynesia. France says the blasts are needed to develop computer simulations that will make further testing unnecessary, and has promised to sign a test ban treaty next year.

Despite that pledge, the testing has met with strong resistance at home and abroad.

Some 62 percent of people in France think their government should cancel the tests, according to a Harris poll released Saturday and conducted for the Votre Dimanche newspaper. There was no margin of error given for the survey of 1,000 people, but random-sample polls of that size generally have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Consumers in Australia, Britain, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand and Norway have launched boycotts of French products. In Australia, sales of some French wines have fallen 30 percent.

In Japan, opposition to the French nuclear tests has emerged as a major theme on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which killed an estimated 140,000 people.

About 500 Hiroshima survivors staged a sit-in Saturday near ground zero, the spot above which the bomb detonated, to protest the French tests. Hiroshima’s mayor has urged residents to honor the boycott.

“We just think there shouldn’t be any more Hiroshimas,” said protester Masanori Hara.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Peter Seiichi Sirayanagi, archbishop of Tokyo, urged all nations with nuclear arsenals to “put an end to their experimentation and eliminate their nuclear devices.” His appeal was broadcast Saturday on Vatican Radio.

In the German capital, Bonn, environmentalists erected a giant black plastic mushroom Saturday to protest the tests. Protests also were staged in Berlin and Hamburg.

And in Budapest, Hungary, about 100 people protested in front of the French Embassy. One banner, in a twist on the French national slogan, read: “Equality, Fraternity, Radioactivity.”

But France’s main quarrel has been with Australia, which last week blocked French jetmaker Dassault Aviation from bidding on a multimillion-dollar trainer plane contract in protest of the testing.

France now plans to take Australia before the United Nations and the World Trade Organization over the contract, and for allowing protests to disrupt French interests in Australia.

The French Foreign Ministry also said it would review coal and uranium contracts with Australia and ban France’s state power utility from investing there.

Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans scoffed at the threatened reprisals.

“There’s a lot of bluff in this announcement,” he told the French newspaper Le Figaro for Saturday editions. “Today, what’s at stake is the credibility of France. … To stop the protests, Paris needs to stop its nuclear tests.”

Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating wrote in an article published Saturday that his government will denounce France at the International Court of Justice for the testing, and send protest delegations to Europe and the United Nations.