Le Parisien uncovers France lie on 1960 nuke test

A report says France covered up the extent of the nuclear fallout from its first atomic bomb test in North Africa.

The report published by the French daily Le Parisien was based on a recently declassified military map regarding the fallout from the detonation of the Gerbouise Bleue bomb in the Algerian desert in 1960.

The map revealed that radioactive particles reached the Italian island of Sicily and the southern Spanish coast on the 13th day after the blast.

Lawyer Fatima Benbraham, who represents dozens of cases in Algeria, said the map shows that Algeria and practically the whole Saharan region was contaminated following the atomic test.

The documents were declassified last year following a ten-year legal battle, in which the French government fought long and hard to prevent the documents to become public, according to Bruno Barrillot, a member of the pressure group Observatoire des Armaments.

The pressure group along with others battled through court to have the documents released in a bid to bring compensation to people whose health has been allegedly affected by the radioactive fallout.

Human rights activists say civilians were not warned of the danger of the 17 blasts that took place in North Africa in 1960-66.

France admitted in 2009 that a small-populated area has been affected by the fallout.

Barrillot said he hopes the newly declassified maps would force the administration of French President Francois Hollande to admit that more people could have been affected by the fallout.

“They did not do these tests under the Eiffel Tower,” said Barrillot. “No, they went far away from France and then lied about the true impact.”

France conducted a total of 210 tests in Algeria and then in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean from 1960 to 1996.