nuclear-news

USA – Marshall Islands “shared history” – 7000 nuclear bombs

I bet the Marshall Islands wish there had been no shared history – peoples’ lives have been ruined because of it.

Barbara Dreaver: Pressure on US for nuclear compensation
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/barbara-dreaver-pressure-us-nuclear-compensation-5064010 By Barbara Dreaver ONE News Pacific Correspondent  September 05, 2012  And there it was. The elephant in the room. Jumping off the Pacific Islands Forum communique were the words “Radioactive Contaminants in the Republic of the Marshall Islands”.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would have been enroute to Rarotonga when the Pacific Island leaders she was coming to visit put out the communique demanding that the US live up to its full obligations in providing adequate compensation for those affected by her country’s nuclear testing.

I wonder how long it took for her to get the news    .Let’s recap. Between 1946 and 1958 the US conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. In total they added up to 7000 Hiroshima bombs.

The people of Rongelap, the main affected island, weren’t evacuated
until two days after the explosion and they were told to return to
their island even when the US Atomic Energy Commission found that
radiation doses far exceeded those allowed for US citizens.

Sadly it doesn’t stop there. In 1991 the US Senate Committee on
Governmental Affairs uncovered a secret policy between the US and
Marshall Islands eliminating radiation protection in case there was
ever a need to restart weapons testing.

This meant the Rongelap people were exposed to radiation doses when
they ate local food. According to the National Cancer Institute, those
who were exposed to radiation have a more than one-in-three chance of
getting cancer.

The US has given more than $600 million in compensation. But the
Marshall Islands say there is still an outstanding amount of more than
$2 billion in unpaid awards made by a Nuclear Claims Tribunal. They
want action and Pacific leaders agree.

The communique written by Pacific leaders couldn’t be more clear. The
US needs to “live up to its full obligations on the provision of
adequate compensation. I admit to being a fan of Hillary Clinton – she
is super-smart, super-intelligent and a great role model. But there
has been a great injustice here.

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At the forum she told leaders that “our countries are bound by shared
interest and more importantly shared values, a shared history and
shared goals for our future”.

I bet the Marshall Islands wish there had been no shared history – peoples’ lives have been ruined because of it.

The Pacific Forum meets in the Marshall Islands next year. It will be
appropriate then to measure how the US has responded to the Pacific
leaders’ call for it to address the Marshalls’ plea for hel

September 5, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | OCEANIA, politics international