Reclaim Guahan, Reunification, the UN and the Marines

From K57:

“Interview between Ray Gibson, Victoria Leon Guerrero and Miget Lujan Bevacqua about the Reclaim Guahan rally which will be held at Skinner’s Plaza on Saturday May 23rd. They discussed how the rally will present cultural history, language, political status, and island politics. They also talked about the testimonies before the United Nations about Guam being a colony of the United States, lack of input from Guam during Compact of Free Association treaty negotiations, reunification of Guam with the CNMI and the Japan - U.S. accord for the relocation of the US Marines from Okinawa to Guam.”

LISTEN TO PART 1 HERE LISTEN TO PART 2 HERE

Tiyan Landowners Concerned About Being Trumped by the Military

Tiyan landowners concerned about getting trumped by military
By John Davis
Published May 8, 2009
KUAM

Tiyan landowners have negotiated a land exchange with the government after 13 hectares was taken for use by the Guam International Airport Authority and well on their way to determining a methodology on how ancestral lands will be divided. So far, the Tiyan Land Exchange Task Force has ensured properties they are looking at have proper easements for infrastructure to be installed.

And landowners are now concerned they'll never get the land exchange because the U.S. military is also looking at using the same parcels for a firing ranges and housing areas.

At the old Federal Aviation Administration, there's over 400 acres of land the land exchange task force is already looking at plotting and dividing for landowners owed smaller and medium sized lots. Tiyan Land Exchange Task Force chairperson Benny Crawford says with military land on both southern and northern boundaries, the feds want to use the old FAA property not as a firing range, but as a housing area.

"Being a retired military myself is they're looking at this land because it's a breach on their security. It's open and they want to close that gap again and I think that's the main purpose," he explained. "An option was to put some ranges up on the Finegayan area with the safety zones extending out into the water, the feedback we got, studies revealed that that would have a potentially negative impact on the people of Guam because it extends out into recreational waters, the double reefs out there."

Those who stand to receive larger portions of land via the land exchange will have their plots in the Marbou command sea land near Anderson South where there is 390 acres of land that can be used for the land swap. The problem? Joint Guam Program Office executive forward director, David Bice says the military plans to use that property as well.

"The planners had looked on the eastern side of Andersen South, Route 15 we call it, and there is some public and some private lands over there where the safety zones go out into the rather choppy waters on the windward side there and that would have less negative impact on the people," said Bice.

Although Bice says no decisions have been made on the use of local government land for the housing area and firing ranges, Crawford says the feds are doing a pretty good job of ignoring his calls. "I don't even know if they're aware of the Tiyan landowners. I've tried to contact this guy Capt. Ruggerio, whatever his name is the public information officer they've never returned my call. I've tried to call a Master Sergeant down there they never return my call, I just want to let them know there's such a task force," he said.

Next week, Crawford will meet with Senator Ben Pangelinan, the Governor and Lt. Governor and hopefully JGPO officials to sign a resolution to set aside the ALC land for Tiyan landowners. In the meantime, landowners will meet tomorrow at the Christ Bible Fellowship building in Tamuning at 1pm.

France to Compensate Nuclear Test Victims

FRANCE TO FINALLY COMPENSATE NUCLEAR TEST VICTIMS
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hjfYconL8ljXKcBLGNurBnKienbw

PARIS (AFP/Pacific Media Watch): France said Tuesday it will compensate victims of nuclear testing carried out in French Polynesia and Algeria, after decades of denying its responsibility.

An initial sum of 10 million euros (US$14 million) has been set aside for military and civilian staff as well as local populations who fell ill from radiation exposure, Defence Minister Herve Morin said.

Some 150,000 civilian and military personnel took part in the 210 nuclear tests carried out in the Algerian Sahara desert and the Pacific between 1960 and 1996.

"It's time for France to be true to its conscience," Morin told Le Figaro newspaper.

The move was welcomed by French veterans who had been waging a long campaign for the state to recognise its responsibility toward ageing and sick staff of its nuclear programme.

"This is a step forward that we are greeting with satisfaction," said Michel Leger, president of the Association of Veterans of Nuclear Tests (AVEN).

Leger recalled he was "wearing shorts and a hat, lying on the ground without protective eyewear, arms folded over my eyes" when an above-ground test took place 40 km (25 miles) away, in southern Algeria in the early 1960s.

"Afterwards, there was no medical checkup," said Leger, who now suffers from cardiovascular illnesses.

One of the world's five declared nuclear powers, France carried out 17 nuclear tests in Algeria in the early 1960s including four atmospheric trials.

The first test code-named "Gerboise Bleue" (Blue Gerbil) took place on February 13, 1960 in Reggane, southern Algeria, some 15 years after the United States ushered in the age of nuclear weapons with its test in New Mexico.

Over four decades, 193 tests were carried out at the French Polynesian islands of Moruroa and at Fangataufa until 1996 when president Jacques Chirac declared an end to the programme.

Retired sailor Serge Vauley recounted that his crew was told to stand on the deck of the Foch aircraft carrier to "admire France's firepower" when the mushroom cloud from a test rose up to the Pacific sky.

Vauley, now 64 and one of the victims seeking compensation, suffers from respiratory problems and described having "holes the size of my fist" in his lungs, Le Figaro reported.

Refusing to acknowledge a direct link between the nuclear tests and the veteran's illnesses, the French government had long argued that it had done everything possible to minimize risks to personnel during testing.

Morin told a news conference that France feared recognition of the ravages caused to its personnel would have weakened its nuclear programme during the Cold War.

By offering compensation, the government was hoping to avoid long, drawn-out litigation, he said. About a dozen veterans have won minor damages in lawsuits brought against the state.

A bill is expected to be presented to parliament next month that will set up a nine-member commission of physicians, led by a magistrate, who will examine individual claims for compensation.

Veterans expressed concern however that the defence minister would have the final say on awarding compensation instead of the independent commission.

They also said it remained unclear how the government would go about compensating native populations.

"These populations will have to prove that they lived there when the tests occurred," said Patrice Bauveret, of the veterans' group.

The government is also lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding its nuclear programme as it considers the compensation claims.

The military archives of the nuclear programme have been opened and are being examined by two experts who are to submit a report in December on the environmental impact of the tests.

A separate health study is under way of 30,000 personnel who took part in the trials that could help support claims presented to the government.

* Comment on this item www.pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com

Moruroa O Tatou Welcomes Nuclear Compensation

MORUROA O TATOU WELCOMES NUCLEAR TESTS COMPENSATION PLAN
November 25, 2008
www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=43258

PAPE'ETE (RNZI Online/Pacific Media Watch): French Polynesia’s nuclear test veterans’ group, Moruroa o Tatou, has welcomed news that the French government plans to introduce a law to set up a compensation fund for those suffering poor health as a result of the French nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific.

Such a law is expected to be tabled early next year and could pave the way for France to recognise a causal link between the tests and the prevalence of conditions such as thyroid cancer.

The head of the veterans’ group, Roland Oldham, says the announcement suggests that France will at last drop its claim that its weapons tests were clean.

Oldham says in contrast, the United States recognises 31 different types of cancer as a possible result of its testing regime.

He says the French government move may also be to pre-empt a cross-party initiative on the issue.

So far, more than two dozen different French court rulings recognised individual complaints that health problems were the result of the weapons tests but to date the French government has dismissed the findings.

Tens of thousands of French servicemen were deployed in the South Pacific during the 30-year test regime which ended in 1996.

Guam Left Out Again

Guam Left Out in New RECA Bill
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
monday 6 august 2007
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IDAHO senators have reintroduced a bill that would make residents of Idaho and Montana eligible for a federal government program that compensates people suffering from diseases acquired from radiation exposure resulting from nuclear testing in the Nevada test site, as Guam still awaits its inclusion in the program.

Robert Celestial, president of the Pacific Association of Radiation Survivors, yesterday expressed disappointment in Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo’s inaction on a draft bill that his group submitted to her office on Jan. 19.

The bill, drafted by PARS, seeks to include Guam in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program, based on the 2005 report released by the National Research Council, which concluded that Guam residents were eligible for the program.

Celestial said despite repeated promises made by Bordallo’s office to bring Guam’s case to Congress, PARS has yet to see action on the draft bill.

Following the release of the NRC report in 2005, Bordallo filed a bill seeking the inclusion of Guam in the RECA program, but the legislation languished in the House of Representatives and was abandoned altogether when the 109th Congress adjourned.

“It’s been over seven months since we submitted our draft proposal to the congresswoman, yet we’re still waiting for her to reintroduce the bill. We love our congresswoman but does she love us back?” Celestial asked. NRC determined that certain elements of fallout from nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, such as the radioactive isotope Iodine-131, settled in Guam. Those affected in this way are often referred to as “downwinders,” to denote their situation downwind from the fallout.

According to researchers, radioactive contamination can manifest itself as various forms of cancer, leukemia and other illnesses, particularly thyroid cancer. “If you look at the obituary pages in the paper, you’ll see a lot of our residents having gone away without ever getting compensated for the diseases they have suffered as a result of nuclear testing in the Pacific during the 1950s,” he added.

Last week, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo and Larry Craig were joined by Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester on S. 1917 that would amend RECA to include all of Idaho and Montana. Nuclear testing in Nevada during the 1950s and 1960s released radiation into the atmosphere that settled in states far away from the original test site.

Original Landowners Protest

Activists protest outside new nature center
by Jean Hudson, KUAM News
Sunday, April 29, 2007

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The opening ceremony on Saturday for the new Nature Center at the National Wildlife Refuge in Ritidian was met with protest. The refurbished Navy facility sits on property that was once owned by Chamorro families, and when the military needed the properties for national defense, the properties were taken away through the condemnation process. But a few original landowners or their descendants say they weren't justly compensated, and one senator is trying to put a balance between the families and the purpose of the refuge.

Senator Jim Espaldon (R), who delivered opening remarks for Saturday's opening ceremony for the Nature Center, says the policy of the local government is to support the local people in its quest to right some wrongs in the past. But the freshman policymaker also presented a harsh reality, saying, "Land is a very dear and close to the heart-type of issue for the people of this island and especially now as we face a dramatic change in our island with the oncoming of the military buildup. We're going to see a lot more new businesses come in and we're going to see the dilution of the Chamorro people on their own island to become a minority in their own land."

The senator acknowledged that he was walking a very thin line when he attended the ceremony. Espaldon has oversight over the committees on Judiciary and Cultural Affairs, and sometimes those two matters conflict. Espaldon said, "What responsibilities do we have in terms of our culture? Do we allow people who come to our island to dictate how we are going to live and what kind of quality of life we're going to enjoy on this island? Or do we share with them exactly how we want this island to be and again it's not going to be an extreme, because yes even though we say this is exactly how it is - there's middle ground."

Members of The Chamorro Nation alongside original landowners and their families are protesting the presence of the Nature Center. Olympia Cruz says her family owned a little more than 7.5 acres of property in the Ritidian area, telling KUAM News, "They keep saying that we sold it. We never sold the land. I don't know where they get the ideal. And they say that we got compensated. Show us what compensation we had."

In reply, Senator Espaldon said, "Whether they were compensated justly or not is questionable. When you're under eminent domain proceedings and the government tells us that we need this land, you need to move, we will pay you for it - they have all the marbles on their side, what can you say?"

Catherine McCollum says her grandfather's Ritidian properties were also condemned. She stated, "The land was condemned, I believe, in 1963 and even then the only compensation they paid my grandfather was for a house was here. But continuation for compensation it never happened." Again, the senator said, "The local people have been very patriotic. They have always supported many of the doctrines and many of the principles that the American civilization was founded upon. But in the process every once in a while the consideration for the local people get lost."

Refuge manager Chris Bandy agreed with the senator, concurring that the refuge's purpose is to preserve the habitat for the benefit of future generations. He said, "It's something we'll have to work through. I think Senator Espaldon spoke well to the issue that we're all here. The refuge is not going to go away. We expect to have habitat here for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. If some day the land becomes sovereign or the land reverts back to the people, as he said it'll be in as good a condition or better condition than when it was utilized in the 1960's."

"One thing that is reality today," said Espaldon, "is that even though it is our aspiration to get this land back from the federal government return it perhaps to the local people, the fact of the matter is that it is today under the control of the federal control and it is a wildlife refuge and it has the ability to preserve a good part of our cultural identity."