Marshall Islands' Nuclear-Testing Victims Call on US to Fulfill Promise
Special Report, Yokwe Online, February 1, 2004

On Friday, in an eleventh-hour reprieve, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) government, with help from the Nuclear Claims Tribunal, found money to keep the 177 Health Program going for a little while longer. The US program funding, which expired the next day, January 31, 2004, has provided doctors and medical treatment for people from nuclear-affected atolls and those with personal injury claims from the Nuclear Claims Tribunal. The RMI's decision to provide its own funding, will keep the program afloat with a slightly reduced level of service until perhaps September 30, according to Jack Niedenthal, Bikini Atoll Liaison.

“The Nepalese doctors will still be on the four outer islands, and the 177 Majuro clinic will be running at some level. At least this is the way we left it at the meeting,” he said. Niedenthal said that while he applauds the effort by the RMI and the Tribunal, he notes that it is a sad day when the people of the 4 atolls have to start competing with other RMI citizens to get the US Congress mandated health care that they deserve and that they were promised 23 years ago.

“Basically, right now the 4 Atoll/177 Health Program stands as an unfunded mandate from the US Congress, which is simply not tolerable for the nuclear victims of the Marshall Islands,” said Niedenthal.

Niedenthal represents Bikini Atoll, one of the four atolls receiving financial and medical compensation for nuclear impact:

The people of Bikini were moved off their atoll by the U.S. Navy in 1946 to facilitate Operation Crossroads, the world’s fourth and fifth atomic bomb explosions. The people of Enewetak were moved off their islands the next year to prepare for a second series of atomic tests. In the 12-year period from 1946-1958, when the Marshall Islands was a United Nations Trust Territory administered by the United States, the United States conducted 67 atomic and hydrogen atmospheric bomb tests in islands, with a total yield of 108 megatons, which is 98 times greater than the total yield of all the U.S. tests in Nevada. Put another way, the total yield of the tests in the Marshall Islands was equivalent to 7,200 Hiroshima bombs. That works out to an average of more than 1.6 Hiroshima bombs per day for the 12-year nuclear testing program in the Marshalls. Radioactive fallout from one of those tests – the March 1, 1954 Bravo shot at Bikini – drifted in the wrong direction and irradiated the 236 inhabitants of Rongelap and Utrik Atolls as well as the crew of a Japanese fishing vessel. Bravo, the largest U.S. nuclear test in history with an explosive force equal to nearly 1,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs, touched off a huge international controversy that eventually led to the U.S. moratorium on atmospheric nuclear testing and the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Jon Weisgall, on behalf of 4 Atolls, Senate Testimony (1)

In 2000, the RMI submitted a Petition of Changed Circumstances, requesting additional compensation for injuries and damages resulting from the United States Nuclear Testing Program. Following the release in the 1990’s of 460 previously classified individual records related to the U.S. Marshall Islands nuclear weapons testing program, including correspondence, memoranda, studies, reports, and surveys, the RMI found that “such injuries, damages and adjudication render the terms of the Section 177 Agreement manifestly inadequate to provide just and adequate compensation for injuries to Marshallese people and for damage to or loss of land.” (2)

The US had told the RMI during last summer’s Compact negotiations that the Petition’s review would be submitted to Congress in early fall, 2003. There were pledges made by members of the Senate and House to hold separate hearings on the Changed Circumstances Petition and the nuclear issues, according to a public letter issued August 19, 2003 by the RMI Compact Office. (3)

During last month’s visit to the Marshalls by a Congressional delegation, Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) said that delays by the Bush Administration in releasing its report on the Petition have held up Congressional hearings on the nuclear testing issues. (4)

Liaison Niedenthal, who attended the CODEL meetings, reported that he was optimistic following the meetings, saying that for the first time in years all the US and RMI governments talked about was the 4 atoll issues of the expiring 177 medical plan and the need for a Congressional hearing.

During last year’s Compact reauthorization negotiations, the US refused to discuss nuclear testing issues saying that those must be referred to Congress. Particularly disturbing to the RMI, was the unilateral changes made by the US to the new Compact document in the insertion (Title I, Section 103 (e): Espousal Provisions) that the amounts paid previously “constitute a full and final settlement of all claims described in Articles X and XI of the Section 177 Agreement, and any such claims are terminated and barred.” (5)

Liaison Niedenthal said, “Just because Section 177 funding for this program expired after the first Compact, this does not mean that the mandate does not need to be fulfilled just because it wasn't inserted into Compact II. “

He is referring to mandates enacted by Congress in the 1980’s, prior to the first Compact of Free Association between the RMI and US in 1986. A United States Law, PL 96-205, enacted March 12, 1980, provided that: '' In addition to any other payments or benefits provided by law to compensate the inhabitants of the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utirik, in the Marshall Islands, for radiation exposure or other losses sustained by them as a result of the United States nuclear weapons testing program at or near their atolls during the period 1946 to 1958, the Secretary of the Interior shall provide for the people of the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utirik and for the people of such other atolls as may be found to be or to have been exposed to radiation from the nuclear weapons testing program, a program of medical care and treatment and environmental research and monitoring for any injury, illness, or condition which may be the result directly or indirectly of such nuclear weapons testing program. “ (6)

The Burton bill is still quoted in DOE annual reports as late as 2002 as its mandate to help the people of Rongelap and Utirik. (7)

Public Law 96-205 states that only the US Congress can end this Health program for the 4 Atolls. (8)

The nuclear victims of the RMI are now left to compete for the scarce resources that the RMI Ministry of Health has for the entire nation, stated Niedenthal in recent dialogue on the Marshallese news website, Yokwe Online.

“This is not right, and the blame has to fall on the US because ultimately the health of the nuclear victims of the RMI is their responsibility, not REPMAR's.”

The lapse of the 177 health program creates a serious and very significant medical dilemma for the 4 atolls/nuclear victims of the RMI, who will lose access to their own doctors and their own 177 health administration office in Majuro.

Four Atoll leaders believe an increase in health care is needed, not a decrease since the same $2 million that was allocated in 1986 is the same allocation they are to receive in 2004 when the program is ending, although now there is a substantially larger population.

“This is a disaster for us, and the US should be ashamed for acting in such a disingenuous way toward a group of people that sacrificed their lives and their land for the well being and safety of United States citizens,” said Niedenthal.

“The US was responsible for what happened to the islanders, not the RMI. The people of Bikini never wanted the RMI government being responsible for any of our programs,” he continued.

In Niedenthal’s opinion, this tactic was first used by the US in the first Compact to turn the 4 nuclear-affected atolls into a minority voting block by waving a big chunk of money in front of the national government so that the citizens of the RMI would pass the Compact, get the 4 atoll lawsuits thrown out of court, and the US can then be able to say proudly, "See, the Marshallese people agreed with this."

He emphasized that it is the US which is not fulfilling its commitment. He pointed out that in the next month, the media will flood the Marshall Islands because of the 50th anniversary of the Bravo shot.

“They are going to hear about it. I promise,” said Niedenthal. (9)

Compiled by Aenet Rowa, Yokwe Online


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Click to View References:

1. Yokwe Online News Special: 4 Atolls Senate Testimony

2. RMI Embassy: Changed Circumstances Petition

3. Yokwe Online News: US Resolution for Compact Renewal, with Changes, Summitted to Congress

4. Yokwe Online News: SPECIAL: US Delegation Visits Marshall Islands

5. Yokwe Online RMI News: RMI Compact Office Clarifies Section 177 Issues in Public Letter

6. Cornell Law, US Code: Medical Care and treatment and Environmental Research And Monitoring Program For Inhabitants Of Bikini, Etc., Atolls For Injury, Illness, or Condition Resulting from Nuclear Weapons Testing by United States; Implementation Plan and Report.

7. US Department of Energy: Report to Congress (pdf)

8. Bikini Atoll Website: PL 96-205 --Burton Bill (pdf)

9. Yokwe Online Forums: Continuation Of Health Program Funding for Four "Nuclear Effected" Atolls

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