Transcript
"For 30 years we lied to this people that these tests were clean. It was us who lied and I was a member of this gang! And for what reason did we lie? Because our own leader had seen a bomb explode."
That's President Edouard Fritch in the assembly.
The pro-independence opposition politician Moetai Brotherson says Mr Fritch blaming his erstwhile leader and predecessor Gaston Flosse calls into question the judgment of the head of government.
Years after the US and Britain had conceded that the weapons tests had caused radiation-induced illnesses, the French stance was still that their tests were different and that they were clean.
Mr Brotherson says the general public might have believed the assurances given by the French authorities and by the pro-French local administration.
15 years ago - and at the height of his power - Gaston Flosse dismissed concerns by nuclear test site veterans about their illnesses by boasting about having had a swim at the test site.
But nine years ago in the face of a growing number of cancer cases, France changed its tune.
The French defence minister Herve Morin announced a compensation law, saying it would be like what was in place in Britain and the US.
To date, however, it has failed to live up to the victims' expectations.
With most applications being thrown out, resentment and frustration have built well beyond the anti-nuclear and pro-independence camp.
Edouard Fritch again -
"Perhaps I did lie to my country, earlier perhaps, but now today! Believe me, believe me I feel obliged to repair what has been done in this country. Even it was the French state that did it. But I need the French state to repair what it has been done in this country."
Edouard Fritch hopes to be able to work with France to settle the compensation problems while accusing the pro-independence side of using the nuclear question to keeping slapping France.
