MANY Polynesians who cleaned up radioactive waste on the French nuclear test site at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific died of radiation exposure, their colleagues claimed yesterday.
Alleging a 'French colonial cover-up' of their problems, more than 50 Polynesians who worked at the atoll during the past 30 years have broken an oath of secrecy forced on them and signed a petition.
They said they were speaking out because their outrage at the plan to resume testing had overcome their fear of retribution by the French authorities. They claimed they were forced to sign the oath of secrecy.
The allegations follow reports released this month by the High Commissioner for French Polynesia, Paul Ronciere, which claimed radiation levels in French Polynesia were lower than those in France or northern Europe.
Edwin Haoa, one of the signatories, gave names of three colleagues who had died since 1989 after working at the atoll.
'I had to search for contaminated areas to clean after the tests,' said Mr Haoa, employed as a security agent by the French atomic test commission between 1963 and 1977.