Born In The Blast, Author Fronts Up Again
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday September 1, 1995
The Sydney author Zohl De Ishtar traces her anti-nuclear fight to the year of her birth - 1953 - when atomic tests began at Maralinga, South Australia.
As a baby, in Adelaide, she developed a rash which doctors thought may have been linked to fallout from the British atomic tests at Maralinga.
Now, Ms De Ishtar, from Annandale, is the only Australian in the New Zealand-organised anti-nuclear flotilla at the 12-mile exclusion zone around Mururoa Atoll, and it has cost her $7,000 to get there.
Having already written a book on French Polynesia, Daughters of the Pacific, she plans to base a novel on these experiences, playing cat and mouse with the French Navy on board a New Zealand yacht, the Triptych.
"It is very exciting to be here, even though we are surrounded by nine French naval ships and patrol boats," she said yesterday from the yacht. "I am delighted that people around us are standing up with a strong voice against President Chirac.
"I am sitting here with my laptop, battling the waves and seasickness, and expect the first nuclear test any moment.
"I am told the water will bubble and the atoll may shake slightly. No doubt, we will feel it when the first test goes off."
Ms De Ishtar says she is prepared to cross the exclusion zone and risk the consequences.
"I have been fighting against nuclear tests for over 17 years and I felt it was important for an Australian to be here, even though we sent no protest vessels," she said.
In 1991, Ms De Ishtar was diagnosed with cervical cancer, which she thinks may have been linked to the Maralinga fallout, as well as her time spent in protests at the Jabiru and Ranger uranium mines in the Northern Territory.
The Triptych, which left Auckland on August 6, Hiroshima Day, was the first peace flotilla vessel to arrive at the exclusion zone yesterday.
© 1995 Sydney Morning Herald