Sinking Pacific Island Kiribati Considers Moving to a Man-Made Alternative

By Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent from Independent.co.uk

Posted on Thursday, 8 September 2011

The future for Kiribati, one of the low-lying Pacific nations threatened by rising seas, is so dire that the government is contemplating relocating the entire population to man-made islands resembling giant oil rigs.

"We're considering everything... because we are running out of options," the President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, said yesterday in Auckland, where he is attending the Pacific Islands Forum. He said that his small, impoverished country – where the highest land is no more than two metres above sea level – urgently needed the world to take action on climate change.

Vulnerable Pacific nations have acquired a powerful new ally, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who visited Kiribati on his way to the Auckland conference. In a speech on Tuesday, Mr Ban warned: "For those who believe climate change is about some distant future, I invite them to Kiribati. Climate change is not about tomorrow. It is lapping at our feet – quite literally in Kiribati and elsewhere." Beachside villages in Kiribati – which consists of 33 coral atolls sprinkled across two million square miles of ocean – have already had to move to escape the encroaching waves. Water supplies have been contaminated by salt water, and crops destroyed. Erosion, caused partly by storms and flooding, is increasingly serious.

Mr Tong said he had seen models of a man-made floating island, similar to an offshore oil platform and costing US$2bn (£1.25bn). While it sounded "like something from science fiction", he said radical ideas had to be considered. "If you're faced with the option of being submerged with your family, what would you do?" he asked. "Would you jump on the rig... on a floating island or not? I think the answer is yes."

Other ideas included building a series of sea walls, at a cost of nearly $1bn. But Mr Tong said it would be up to the international community to fund such projects, and he complained that Kiribati had received little financial aid despite pledges from wealthier nations.

A former British colony called the Gilbert Islands, Kiribati is home to 103,000 people, most of them crammed into the main atoll, Tarawa, a horseshoe-shaped chain of islets surrounding a central lagoon. Like other pancake-flat Pacific nations such as Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, and Indian Ocean nations such as the Maldives, it faces oblivion as a result of global warming-induced rising sea levels.

Mr Tong said that for i-Kiribati, as his countrymen are known, it was no longer a case of adapting to a changing environment, but of survival. He said Kiribati desperately needed the world to act to reduce carbon emissions.

Mr Ban said his visit to Kiribati had strengthened his view that "something is seriously wrong with our current model of economic development". He said: "We will not succeed in reducing emissions without sustainable energy solutions."

Marshal Islanders Worried About Hypersonic Jet Debris

August 16, 2011 by kyle from dmzhawaii.org

Last week, the U.S. military “lost” one of its Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicles over the Pacific Ocean. Radio Australia featured an interview with Giff Johnson, journalist in the Marshall Islands about the increased level of missile activity over the Pacific, the secrecy and threat of aborted launches to inhabited islands, and the contamination risk of depleted uranium and other toxins in the missiles. Here is a link to the audio file of the interview. Below is the transcript of the interview:

SOURCE: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201108/s3295273.htm

Marshall Islanders worried about hypersonic jet debris

Updated August 17, 2011 09:17:31

We’ve all heard it – “faster than a speeding bullett” – well that concept has now gone beyond superman and comic book/tv fiction to reality.

The US has experimented with an aircraft – Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 – at its top speed it could travel the 17,000 kilometres between London and Sydney in about 49 minutes. Last week the glider went out of control and came down somewhere in the vicinity of Marshall Islands where a Minuteman missile warhead blew it up on re-entry over Marshall Islands. It raises many safety issues for Marshall Islands.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Giff Johnson, Marshall Islands correspondent

JOHNSON: People in the Marshall Islands know very little other than what is publicly released by the Defence Department on these aborted tests and interestingly on the Minuteman missile re-entry vehicle. It’s a dummy warhead that they target on Kwajalein Atoll on the Marshall Islands. It said that it was blown up northeast of Kwajalein Atoll. Well the interesting thing if you look at a map northeast of Kwajalein Atoll, there’s a bunch of inhabited islands, so we haven’t heard anything more the defence department, people are asking questions, but it’s a concern as people start to hear about more of these missions being aborted near the Marshall Islands.

COUTTS: Was it actually launched from Kwajalein or Johnson?

JOHNSON: No, these shots are launched from Vandenberg air force base, in California and they’re targeted on Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands and Kwajalein is a major missile testing facility. These are not missile tests that involve intercepts. The Minuteman was just a test of the Minuteman re-entry vehicle to see if it was working and the glider, of course, is this hypersonic glider is a new weapon system that they’re developing. So they’re targeted out here and sometimes there are launches from Kwajalein trying to intercept incoming missiles.

COUTTS: Alright. Well the safety issues, there are a number of them. How do you see that?

JOHNSON: Well, we need to get more information from these US defence department agencies and if they’re acknowledging that re-entry vehicles are being destroyed within minutes of splashdown in the Marshall Islands and in the vicinity of inhabited islands. It doesn’t do much for peoples confidence to have no information about what’s going on and there’s very little released publicly by the air force or in this case, the Hypersonic glider from Darpa, the defence department research agency. So yeah, the Kwajalein elected senators in the parliament here are raising concern about what islands are in the hazard zone and obviously anything that’s targeted on Kwajalein is coming across inhabited islands and, of course, Kwajalein is inhabited too, not only by Marshall Islanders, but by Americans and so there’s just a lot of questions about where this debris is going. And then with the glider, it stopped communicating with home-base, so as far as we know, nobody knows where it went.

COUTTS: Now, someone, even though it’s moving so fast, you’re not likely to see it, but someone along the coastline is going to see something. So no one’s picked up a piece of debris from it?

JOHNSON: Not as far as I know, but there are people who live on very remote islands with very little technology for communicating and so it’s possible that people could see something and not even know that there was a test happening and we’ve got islands that don’t have telephones, don’t have internet, and don’t even have a radio communication. So people could see something and just not know what it is.

COUTTS: So the whole thing is treated by the military with utmost secrecy, so the civilian contingency get no information whatsoever?

JOHNSON: Well, the defence department releases a statement before and after each test and they acknowledge when it’s successful or when it’s been aborted and they give a few details. But the details in terms of the population in the Marshall Islands, where the whole point of why these missiles are targeted out here is two fold. One is it’s four thousand miles, so it gives them a good flight test from California for a long range missile re-entry vehicle, but also face it, there aren’t very many people out here and the Americans wouldn’t feel too happy if these missiles were targeted on California, so that’s part of the reason they’re doing it, just like the Bikini tests in the 40s and the 50s. There just weren’t very many people out here and the problem though the 60,000 or 50,000 people who are here would probably like to get a little more information about where these bits and pieces are being blown up.

COUTTS: How often would tests like this be conducted?

JOHNSON: There’s been quite a bit of activity at Kwajalein in the last few months. They’ve already had a couple of missile test missions and then this hypersonic glider and in a brief conversation I had with the missile range commander a couple of weeks ago. He said this upcoming year is going to be quite busy. So I think normally, maybe a test every quarter something like that, may be three or four a year. But it seems like they’ve been more this year and the pace has been stepped up at Kwajalein.

COUTTS: Did the commander actually explain to you why it will be busy next year?

JOHNSON: I don’t have details on that, but I do know that what’s been going on with the missile range is that after installation of an underwater fibre optic cable to Kwajalein, the army has been able to remote much of its command and control work on the missile testing to Huntsville, Alabama, and so it’s a lot less expensive for people to run tests missions, because they don’t have to send everybody out to Kwajalein now. They can just sit in the control room in the US and have real time data on all the missile tests and this is a big selling point for getting customers to use the ranges that the cost is reduced. So presumably that has something to do with it.

COUTTS: Well, with testing like the Falcon Hypersonic technology vehicle to the glider that’s capable of moving 17,000 kilometres in about 49 minutes and all the other tests that you’re talking about, presumably a lot of it are nuclear powered. Is there any sort of discussion about what’s happening with the environment, are you noticing the marine environment at all, having any impact on it?

JOHNSON: These are not nuclear powered, but the re-entry vehicles contain what’s known as depleted uranium in order to make them simulate a real nuclear warhead for the purpose of missile defence and radar telemetry discrimination, because the whole issue of missile defence is can they pick a real warhead out of all the junk that an enemy would presumably throw up to confuse the radar. So yes, depleted uranium is in the re-entry vehicles, they land, they hit, explode into the lagoon or into the ocean. I mean there must be some contamination, but there’s never that I’m aware of been any published studies about contamination, although I know that Kwajalein senators have raised the environmental issue from time to time about the depleted uranium and what hazard it causes, but as far as I know, the army has always maintained that there’s no threat from it.

University of Guam President Underwood Expresses Willingness to Partner with DoD on Research for Island Sustainability

Written by Jeff Marchesseault, Guam News Watch Anchor
Monday, September 20, 2010

GUAM - It's a delicate balance between the viable defense of a "free Pacific" and the quality of life rite here at home. As with anything worth having, there are trade-offs. Something's always got to give. As they say, freedom isn't free.

To balance the high cost of that freedom, local leverage and say-so are priceless tools for helping Guam's community get what it needs out of the buildup – namely affordable and sustainable supplies of energy, water, and land.

Perhaps that's one reason University of Guam (UOG) president Robert Underwood is pushing so hard to establish UOG as a Research and Development resource thru the university's center for island sustainability.

Underwood addressed Rotary Club of Northern Guam at the Hyatt Regency today, telling Rotarians that UOG aims to ensure we're able to use our resources today in ways that don't keep future generations from using those same resources.

"So, as we go through this process of creating the Center for Island Sustainability, we're reaching out to the broader community and we're creating a series of advisory councils. And we're inviting members of the business community, members of the activist community, just village mayors, anybody who's interested to become members of these advisory councils. So that as we set up our research and our educational, and our outreach activities, we get good faith participation from all of the sectors of the island and that it would have the desired effect."

"The University of Guam is willing to be a partner in the research. And I think it would really behoove the Department of Defense to engage us in a partner because when you have researchers who are from here, and researchers who are committed to a life here, then I think they'll do the very best by both the island and give the military honest research. And so our point in setting up the Center for Island Sustainability is to provide a venue for that."

Underwood told Guam News Watch that local officials' concerns over the potential radioactive contamination of Apra harbor is a case in point. That if qualified Guam-based authorities are concerned that dredging Apra could disturb suspected radioactive waste left over from nuclear testing in the Marshalls in the 1940's, then they could help the university solve the dilemma, through the Center for Island Sustainability.

Regional leaders seek to stop spread of invasive species

Regional leaders seek to stop spread of invasive species

Thursday, 10 December 2009 04:38 by Zita Y. Taitano | Variety News Staff

THE governors of Guam and the CNMI, as well as the presidents of the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and Marshall Islands have signed a joint communiqué agreeing to initiate programs to ensure that islands in the region will be able to handle the possible influx of invasive species resulting from increased entry of military cargo.

The communiqué was signed during the 12th Micronesia Chief Executives Summit concluded last week. It includes an update by the nine members of the Micronesia Regional Invasive Species Council.

During the summit, the council addressed everything from funding issues, ongoing efforts that would prevent the expansion of the brown tree snake, as well as the development of the Micronesia Biosecurity Plan.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, island leaders expressed their concern regarding invasive species especially with the military buildup and strongly requested that DOD along with its fellow U.S. department and agencies begin proactive measures that would prevent any new invasive species from entering the shores of the islands here in the region.

They also expressed their appreciation for the $2.7 million federal funding for the development of the plan.

The chief executives made some recommendations regarding the plan such as identifying who will head the council and designating two representatives to the council from each state and national jurisdiction by the end of this year.

The council must also reaffirm their commitment and hold two workshop style meetings each year between the summits. During those meetings, the council will discuss invasive issues and what actions can be taken or will be prioritized. A minimum of $2,500 from each jurisdiction would be committed to the council to fund its priority projects.

The council must also reaffirm their commitment and provide a full-time invasive species coordinator for each jurisdiction.

Guam has already taken a step in combating invasive species. Last month, the Inter-agency Bio-Security Task Force was formed at the governor’s office in Adelup.

The task force is comprised of the Guam Department of Agriculture, Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Its primary goal is provide information and updates on what and how invasive species can be eradicated from Guam.

The task force also has currently in training three canines who will be able to detect any type of invasive species in construction materials or items coming into the island before those items head out to the rest of Micronesia.

Micronesia summit today

Micronesia summit today

Dionesis Tamondong • Pacific Daily News • December 3, 2009

Promoting regional tourism, conserving marine resources and discussing the impact of the upcoming military buildup to the entire Micronesia region are some of the topics on the agenda for 12th Micronesian Chief Executives' Summit.

The gathering of Micronesia's leaders takes place today and tomorrow at the Sheraton Laguna Guam Resort.

Since the Summit was established in 2004 by Guam Gov. Felix Camacho and Juan Babauta, who was governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands at the time, biannual meetings have been held to establish closer ties among the islands and promote initiatives beneficial to the entire western Micronesian region.

"As chief executives of the islands in our region, we recognize that maintenance of healthy ecosystems and sustainable resource management are critical to the livelihoods of Pacific people," Camacho said in a news release.

Renewable energy, invasive species and work-force development are among the topics on Summit's agenda today. Tomorrow, participants will get an update on the military buildup and its impact to the region from retired Marine Maj. Gen. David Bice, executive director of the Joint Guam Program Office, and Gary Kuwabara, Western Regional director for the Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment.

Camacho will be joined at the summit by:

# Kenneth Kedi, minister of Transportation and Communication for the Republic of the Marshall Islands, representing RMI President Jurelang Zedkaia;

# CNMI Gov. Benigno Fitial;

# Republic of Palau President Johnson Toribiong;

# Federated States of Micronesia President Emanuel Mori;

# Chuuk Gov. Wesley Simina;

# Yap Gov. Sebastian Anefal;

# Kosrae Gov. Robert Weilbacher; and

# Pohnpei Gov. John Ehsa.

US elevates Pacific-born administrator to senior roles

US elevates Pacific-born administrator to senior roles

Updated 5 hours 45 minutes ago

Pacific Islander and Chamorro, Tony Babauta, has been elevated over the past month as the White House's senior administrator for Asian Americans and American Pacific islanders, as well as Assistant Secretary at the Department of the Interior in Washington. This make Mr Babauta most senior Pacific islander ever to work this closely with a US President.

In his capacity, Mr Babauta coordinates US federal policy for Guam, the Northern Marianas, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa, and administers federal assistance provided to the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau.

Geraldine Coutts begins by asking this senior Washington figure about last week's re-establishment of the White House Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and American Pacific Islanders.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Tony Babauta, Guam-born Assistant Secretary at the Department of the Interior in Washington

Downwinders: Include Guam in law; Radiation survivors group meets

Downwinders: Include Guam in law; Radiation survivors group meets

By Bernice Santiago • Pacific Sunday News • October 18, 2009

A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council.

The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation.

Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.

The PARS group hopes to include Guam in the law, citing concerns about exposure to radioactive debris during the 1940s and 1950s, when a series of atmospheric nuclear tests were conducted by the U.S. in the Marshall Islands.

The tests were conducted 1,200 miles east of Guam, in an area where trade winds are predominantly from east to west, the report states.

In the report, the National Research Council's committee on radiation exposure recommends that residents of Guam living be eligible for compensation as "downwinders."

"Help us identify what's really going on, what really happened," said Terry Flores at the meeting yesterday. Two of her sisters have been diagnosed with breast cancer, she said. The tests were conducted when she was a young girl, and Flores was concerned that there could be a possible link between their diagnosis and radiation exposure.

Tamuning resident Dolores Taitingfong, a cancer survivor, said that she hopes residents who were exposed and may have become ill from exposure will be compensated.

"I'm not looking for compensation, I'm well now," Taitingfong said. "But the other people who are sick need it."

The report states that Guam received measurable fallout from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific, according to an independent assessment by the NRC committtee. Further efforts are necessary to establish associated cancer risk, according to the report.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death on Guam, according to data the Guam Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition released Friday.

Nearly 20 percent of deaths on the island from 2003 to 2007 were cancer-related, but the coalition stated that the general cancer trends on Guam are similar to what's seen on the mainland U.S.

Certain Guam cancer cases have been linked to smoking, according to the data. Guam has the highest percentage of smokers in the nation -- 27.3 percent, according to Yvette Paulino of UOG and the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii Partnership.

Rocket Island - Pacific Ocean

Must see video. Link is provided below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXMJVgctizA

October 2009

An American test warhead arcs gracefully through the sky towards Kwajalein Island, a strange but familiar sight here. But now a rift between America and the Marshallese is making the islands future unclear.

A Minuteman III intercontinental missile was fired 28 minutes earlier from a Californian airbase. Fortunately the re-entry vehicles splash down harmlessly in deep water in the Kwajalein Atoll. US Army Lt-Colonel Harold Buhl is pleased. In order for a weapon to be a weapon of deterrence it needs to be proven that in fact it will work. For 63 years the Marshall Islands has played host to American war games but in 2016 Americas lease for 11 of the islands is up. The Marshallese say the US compensation is inadequate and their people are struggling. Dubbed The Slum of the Pacific, 15,000 people are crammed into a narrow strip of coral and sand. We have running water 3 days a week 2,000 kids dont go to school at all., tells Michael Kabua, Ebeye Sentator. Landowners are asking more than they've been offered, and now negotiations have stalled.

Produced by ABC Australia, Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Conference will focus on human rights and family

Family, human rights issues top forum agenda
Monday, 07 September 2009 03:09
by Jude Lizama
Marianas Variety News Staff

HUMAN rights and family issues as they relate to the presence of military bases are among the main issues that will be discussed at the 7th meeting of the International Network of Women Against Militarism from Sept. 14 to 19.

Hosted by the University of Guam in Mangilao and Carmel on the Hill Center, this year’s conference theme is “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights.” Attending the conference are women from Japan, Okinawa, Hawaii, South Korea, Philippines, Australia, Republic of Belau, Marshall Islands, Guam, Saipan, United States, and Puerto Rico.

The International Network of Women Against Militarism has been meeting since 1997 to share information and strategize about the negative effects of U.S. military operations.

These effects include military violence against women and girls, the plight of mixed-race Amerasian children abandoned by U.S. military fathers, environmental contamination, cultural degradation and the distortion of local economies. They focus on how military institutions, values, policies and operations impact communities, especially women.

Women across the globe have endured tremendous struggles to protect their families and survive during times of war and unrest. It is from these struggles that women have gained the strength to fight for peace.

Workshops and public forums on human trafficking and prostitution, political arrangements with the U.S., rethinking peace and security, exploring alternatives for economic sustainability, environmental contamination and toxicity will be featured throughout.

A central focus of the gathering is the issue of the U.S. military presence on Guam. Referred to as the “tip of the spear,” Guam is immersed in an unprecedented military build-up as the U.S. plans to relocate thousands of Marines and their dependents from Okinawa. The conference comes at a critical time in island’s history, and aims to bring international attention to the concerns being raised about the proposed build-up.

Additionally, there will also be a historical tour of the island; a community vigil to honor the past and heal for the future; a public art event featuring local and international artists; and other networking opportunities.

Those interested in the conference may register until Thursday. For additional information, visit www.genuinesecurity.blogspot.com.

Family, human rights issues top forum agenda

Monday, 07 September 2009 03:09 by Jude Lizama | Variety News Staff

HUMAN rights and family issues as they relate to the presence of military bases are among the main issues that will be discussed at the 7th meeting of the International Network of Women Against Militarism from Sept. 14 to 19.

Hosted by the University of Guam in Mangilao and Carmel on the Hill Center, this year’s conference theme is “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights.” Attending the conference are women from Japan, Okinawa, Hawaii, South Korea, Philippines, Australia, Republic of Belau, Marshall Islands, Guam, Saipan, United States, and Puerto Rico.

The International Network of Women Against Militarism has been meeting since 1997 to share information and strategize about the negative effects of U.S. military operations.

These effects include military violence against women and girls, the plight of mixed-race Amerasian children abandoned by U.S. military fathers, environmental contamination, cultural degradation and the distortion of local economies. They focus on how military institutions, values, policies and operations impact communities, especially women.

Women across the globe have endured tremendous struggles to protect their families and survive during times of war and unrest. It is from these struggles that women have gained the strength to fight for peace.

Workshops and public forums on human trafficking and prostitution, political arrangements with the U.S., rethinking peace and security, exploring alternatives for economic sustainability, environmental contamination and toxicity will be featured throughout.

A central focus of the gathering is the issue of the U.S. military presence on Guam. Referred to as the “tip of the spear,” Guam is immersed in an unprecedented military build-up as the U.S. plans to relocate thousands of Marines and their dependents from Okinawa. The conference comes at a critical time in island’s history, and aims to bring international attention to the concerns being raised about the proposed build-up.

Additionally, there will also be a historical tour of the island; a community vigil to honor the past and heal for the future; a public art event featuring local and international artists; and other networking opportunities.

Those interested in the conference may register until Thursday. For additional information, visit www.genuinesecurity.blogspot.com.

Collateral Damage Video

International Network of Women Against Militarism Meeting in Guam

7TH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF WOMEN AGAINST MILITARISM

Resistance, Resilience, and Respect for Human Rights
CHinemma’, Nina’maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao

Location: University of Guam, Mangilao, Guåhan
Dates: September 14-19, 2009

Women across the globe have endured tremendous struggles to protect their families and survive during times of war and unrest. It is from these struggles that women have gained the strength to fight for peace. This September, they will gather on the island of Guam for the 7th Meeting of the International Network of Women Against Militarism themed, “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights”.

The five-day conference will bring together women from Japan, Okinawa, South Korea, Hawaii, Philippines, Australia, Republic of Belau, Marshall Islands, Guam, United States, Puerto Rico and Saipan – all of whom have felt the tremendous impacts of US military bases in their homelands.

The International Network of Women Against Militarism has been meeting since 1997 to share information and strategize about the negative effects of US military operations. These effects include military violence against women and girls, the plight of mixed-race Amerasian children abandoned by US military fathers, environmental contamination, cultural degradation and the distortion of local economies. They focus on how military institutions, values, policies and operations impact communities, especially women.

The United States has had a strong military presence on Guam for more than a century, and occupies nearly one-third of the island. Guam, which has been dubbed “the tip of the spear” by the US Department of Defense, is in the midst of an unprecedented military build-up as the US plans to move 17,000 Marines and their dependents from Okinawa to the island. The conference comes at a critical time in Guam’s history, and aims to bring international attention to the concerns being raised about the proposed build-up.

The conference will feature workshops and public forums on human trafficking and prostitution; political arrangements with the United States; rethinking peace and security; exploring alternatives for economic sustainability; environmental contamination and toxicity; and much more.

There will also be a historical tour of the island; a community vigil to honor the past and heal for the future; a public art event featuring local and international artists; and many opportunities to network and establish goals for the future.

For more information please contact: Dr. LisaLinda Natividad at lisanati@yahoo.com or (671) 735-2962.

Sponsoring Organizations: Conscious Living; Famoksaiyan; Fuetsan Famalao’an; Guåhan Coalition for Peace and Justice; Guåhan Indigenous Collective; GUAHAN Project; Global Fund for Women; Office of Minority Health Resource Center; Sage Project, Incorporated; Women and Gender Studies Program, University of Guam.

Marshall Islands to go to Court Over Nuclear Testing

Marshall Islanders go to US court over nuclear testing
Monday, 18 August 2008 00:00

MAJURO (Pacnews) — Bikini Islanders in the Marshall Islands hope their case for additional compensation for damage caused U.S. nuclear weapons tests by yield results, reports Radio New Zealand International.

Their quest to be given more money has been revived in a new round of litigation in the U.S. Court of Appeals, with a ruling expected in the next few months. The U.S. maintains that the issue has been settled in previous agreements.

Bikini Island Council representative Jack Niedenthal said if their legal bid fails, they may have to approach U.S. politicians.

“The only hope we have is going back to the U.S. Congress and asking them to help us, there’s nothing forcing them to help us so it’s sort of like banging a tin cup and it’s not a very good feeling to be doing that,” he said.

The Question of Guam 2007

Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
Sixty-second General Assembly
Fourth Committee
3rd Meeting (PM)

FOURTH COMMITTEE CONTINUES DECOLONIZATION DEBATE, HEARING
PETITIONERS FROM GUAM, WESTERN SAHARA

As the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) continued its discussion of decolonization issues this afternoon, the questions of Guam and Western Sahara featured prominently, with the Committee hearing more than 20 petitioners on both those matters.
On the question of Guam, petitioners raised concerns about the steady United States military presence, and the expected rise in their number by 50,000, including military personnel, their dependents and contractors. They said militarization of Guam was an impediment to the right to self-determination of the Chamoru people -- Guam's native people. Though the Chamoru did not unanimously support the United States militarization on the island, it could not be stopped because that country was the administering Power.

"American military commanders beamed with pride at the incredible control they enjoyed over this tiny little island, which they regularly call 'Fortress Guam'," said the representative of Famoksaiyan, an organization that brings together Chamoru people from the Pacific and the United States, in support of Guam's decolonization. As the United States continued to "politely and impolitely" insist that the United Nations mind its own business, he felt it was necessary for the United Nations to engage in its own forms of "polite and impolite action".

A representative of the Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice said that the militarization of the island had also sparked a capitalistic boom, with indigenous Chamoru families struggling economically, selling their land to American and foreign companies in the hope of profiting from the military boom. The United Nations should be more active in upholding the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples with respect to Guam, and more resources for educational campaigns about self-determination and decolonization should be disseminated.

A representative of the Guahan Indigenous Collective also spoke on the question of Guam.

Background

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) met this afternoon to continue its debate on all decolonization issues, and was also expected to hear petitioners from Non-Self-Governing Territories. (Reports before the Committee are summarized in yesterday's Press Release GA/SPD/371.)

Committee Chairman ABDALMAHMOOD ABDALHALEEM MOHAMAD ( Sudan) informed members that, while it had been decided that the Committee would hear petitioners on the questions of New Caledonia, Guam and Western Sahara today, the petitioner from New Caledonia was unable to come to New York as scheduled. Therefore, the Committee would begin by hearing from petitioners on the question of Guam.

Petitioners on Question of Guam

MICHAEL LUJAN BEVACQUA, representative of Famoksaiyan, an organization that brought together Chamoru people from the Pacific and the United States committed to the decolonization of Guam, noted that, in 1980, Chamorus made up 45 per cent of Guam's population, but that number had fallen to 37 per cent in 2000. Since 11 September 2001, America's military presence had risen steadily, and Guam faced a further increase of 50,000 civilian and military personnel due to the relocating of American Marines, Air Force and Army staff from Okinawa and the Republic of Korea. "American military commanders beamed with pride at the incredible control they enjoyed over this tiny little island, which they regularly call 'Fortress Guam', or the 'tip of America's spear'," he said.

The official position of the United States on its colonies today was that they were domestic concerns, he said. As such, the United Nations had no authority or mandate to encourage negotiations on their status, or to alter their relationship to the United States. The United States Government's resistance to resolution 1541 (1960) (Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples) was clear. As the United States continued to "politely and impolitely" insist that the United Nations mind its own business, he felt it was necessary for the United Nations to engage in its own forms of "polite and impolite action".

RIMA MILES, a Refaluwasch (or Carolinian), from the island of Saipan in Guam, said the Chamoru right to self-determination was being threatened by the United States' actions, which contradicted the terms of its obligation to the Chamoru people. Currently, the Territory was preparing for a population increase of 55,000 in military workers and dependents, which made up more than a quarter of the current population. The militarization of their homeland was a direct impediment to the Chamoru right to self-determination. In addition, live-fire sites would be available to the naval and air forces of other United Nations Member States, including Australia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. She urged the Committee to condemn that multinational disregard for the United Nations Charter and resolution 1541.

She said that, not only were they seeing international Governments interested in United States military schemes for Guam, but "corporate vultures" were circling and already touching down, and $10 billion in new investment by the United States Department of Defense could be expected. With one third of the island occupied, national integrity would be compromised. Where the land and sea used to be protected, now beachfront developments foreshadowed the future to come. The loss of land was coupled with environmental degradation.

The United Nations must look at non-self-governing situations on a case-by-case basis, especially when administering Powers were not cooperative, she said. She had come today with no monetary support from the United States or the local government. "We are students and parents who do not have […] money, but still we come […] in order for you to fulfil your mission", and so that "these voices cannot be forgotten". More than 160 United States atomic and hydrogen bomb tests had made women into vessels to pass death to the hope they carried in their wombs.

MARIE AUYONG, Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice, speaking on behalf of Victoria-Lola M. Leon Guerrero, said that an amplified militarization of Guam was a direct impediment to the native people's human right to self-determination and should spark concern in the international community about United States military presence in the Pacific. Guam was host to the largest United States military exercises in the Pacific since the Viet Nam War. The people of Guam did not unanimously support the United States militarization on the island, yet, because that country was the administering Power, they had no way of stopping it.

She said that the militarization of the island had also sparked a "capitalistic boom". The island seemed to be "for sale", and indigenous Chamoru families, struggling economically, had begun to sell their land to United States and foreign companies, which hoped to profit from the military boom. "It is tragic that more than 60 years after your inception, and the United Nations declaration to eradicate colonization, the people of Guam remain squashed under the thumb of the world's biggest super Power," she said.

The United Nations should be more active in upholding resolution 1541, ensuring that the native Chamoru people of Guam exercise their right to self-determination and decolonization. A fact-finding mission should be sent to Guam. The island also needed more resources for educational campaigns about self-determination and decolonization.

Two Islands

Two Island Tales, The Use and Abuse of Power
By Brian McAfee
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/5631/1/32/
August 1, 2007

The idyllic lives of two island based populations were inexorably changed and came close to annihilation just to accommodate U.S. supposed protection of democracy. Both Bikini Atoll in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean's Diego Garcia island were populated by thriving, self sufficient, fishing based population until coming under the radar screen of British and U.S. hegemonic interests. The disregard and callus indifference towards the effected populations show the true nature of U.S. "values."

Both Bikini and Diego Garcia resurfaced as issues earlier this year when survivors of the hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific and Chagos islanders (Diego Garcia) won court cases recognizing the injustices forced upon them by the U.S. in the case of Bikinians and by the British in the case of the Chagos islanders. The Bikinians were awarded $1 billion in damages for the impact and effect of U.S. nuclear and hydrogen tests. They will likely never see a cent of it as the bank reserve designated for awarding payment is said to have no funds to accommodate the ruling. The obvious irony here is that the funding to continue the Iraq war is seemingly boundless and unending but to rectify an earlier injustice is economically unfeasible. From 1946 through 1958 the U.S. had carried out 23 atomic and hydrogen bomb tests with the 1954 Bravo test the most significant one. The Bikinians were first moved to Rongeric, where they nearly starved to death, then they were shipped to Kwajalein and finally to tiny Kili where now their population is more then fifteen times bigger than the original 167 that were forcibly removed in 1946. The health effect of being down wind and contamination of the food supply of the resettled Bikini Islanders continue to be a factor in the health and food supply of Pacific islands of the Marshall Island Region.

The Chagos islanders won a hollow victory that they would be allowed to return to their islands, with the exception of Diego Garcia, the largest and main island in the archipelago, and the primary home of the exiled islanders. The U.S. which has a naval and air base on the island remains unwilling to give back the stolen island. In the case of Diego Garcia, Britain and the U.S. both were culprits in the theft of the island. While the U.S. media has, for the most part, not covered the issue of Diego Garcia two journalists have made a point of keeping it alive as an issue. Both William Blum and John Pilger have kept the story and issue alive over the years. Diego Garcia is an example of an ongoing injustice with elements of imperialism, racism and ongoing abuse of power in the name of "democracy." Blum in his recent book "Rogue State" described what happened in the Chagos Islands, "A few thousand inhabitants of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean were summarily uprooted by Great Britain and shipped against their will to Mauritius and the Seychelles, each more than a thousand miles away. No one helped them resettle or paid for the homes they lost. They simply were forced to become squatters in foreign lands. The reason for this was to make room for a U.S. military base on the biggest of the Chagos Islands, Diego Garcis." John Piler's new book "Freedom Nest Time" goes in to more details of what happened with the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia with updated details.

In both cases the apparent writing of wrongs were deceptive. In the case of the Bikinian legal victory of $1 billion the funds, according to the U.S., no longer exists to pay them despite the current ruling, how convenient. In the case of Diego Garcia the main goal in the native pursuit of justice, the Island of Diego Garcia itself, remains off limits to its rightful owners, the Chagossian people. The U.S. continues to scoff at the legal and moral basis for justice, for simply doing the right things.

Justice for the Marshall Islands

Please sign the Marshallese survivors' petition and circulate widely --it
only takes 3 minutes at the most. Just double click on the link below and be
patient and wait for about a minute or so, the petition will come up. You
have to preview your signature first and then officially sign on.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/527291025

The US-Japan Committee on Racial Justice is one of active groups actively
supporting the Marshallese survivors of ERUB (acronym for the 4 atolls of the
Marshall Islands). For the whole month of June, they will be in Washington,
D.C. to lobby for the Marshallese survivors of the 67 nuclear tests and the
Petition for Changed Circumstances. We are half way to our goal of 5,000
signatures; we now have a total of 2,579 signatures. So, your timely support
would be greatly appreciated.

As many of you may be aware, fallout from these nuclear detonations landed on
Guam, as was attested to by Lt. Schreiber who, after the military gag rule
was lifted, apologized to the Chamorro people in 2005 for not warning them of
the imminent danger under orders from his superiors. Moreover, many of the
ships and planes that were used in monitoring the nuclear detonations were
either washed down in Anderson Air Force Base or off Coco's island. Some of
the ships then proceeded to San Francisco Bayview Hunter's Point Shipyard
that remains highly toxic and a Superfund site till this day.