Veterans of New Zealand's protests against French atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in 1973 have appealed to the Government to follow the example of France.
The French government has drafted legislation to set aside $13.5 million to compensate military personnel and the people of French territories in the South Pacific who suffered health consequences from the testing, including leukemia and other forms of cancer.
The Mururoa Veterans Society, representing New Zealand Navy personnel who served on the protest frigates Otago and Canterbury, and their dependents, has applauded the French decision, saying France had finally recognised the after-effects.
"Now it is up to the New Zealand Government to show the same honesty by providing specific funding assistance for those Mururoa veterans and their dependents who are still suffering from exposure to atmospheric nuclear testing," society president Peter Mitchell, of Tauranga, said tonight.
In the process of developing its own nuclear capability, France exploded 38 nuclear devices in the atmosphere above Mururoa Atoll.
New Zealand opposed the testing programme and in 1973 the Labour Government led by Norman Kirk sent the Otago and then the Canterbury on voyages to provide a focus for international condemnation.
The voyages helped mobilise world opinion which eventually forced the French to stop atmospheric nuclear testing and move to underground sites.
Each frigate monitored single nuclear blasts upwind at the edge of the 12-mile territorial limit around Mururoa Atoll.
Mr Mitchell said the society estimated 90 percent of the combined crews of 500 have since complained of health consequences and many have died of cancer-related diagnoses.
"Successive New Zealand governments have never taken them seriously - and yet these are the men they sent to Mururoa to force France to stop atmospheric nuclear testing.
"France's admission that there were after-effects for its military personnel and civilians in the French territories in the South Pacific makes it hard for the New Zealand Government to deny there were consequences for our sailors," he said.
The society intends to write to Prime Minister John Key and Minister of Veteran Affairs Judith Collins to ask for justice.
