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In response to questions at
the Nitijela Wednesday morning, Health Minister Alvin
Jacklick said that the 177 Health Program office will be
closing but the health services will continue. He indicated
that the Ministry of Health will continue providing health
services to people from the four atolls.
He also said the Ministry
will maintain doctors on the outer islands to continue its
focus on delivering primary health care and preventive
health services for the four atolls.
“The program may be closed,
but we’ll still provide the services to the people of the
four atolls,” Jacklick said.
The 177 Health Plan office
at the back of Majuro Hospital is in the process of shutting
down the operation that it has supervised since the late
1980s, when the program first started under the first
Compact.
Funding from the US ended
with the end of the first Compact. Enewetak Senator Ismael
John said later in the Nitijela session Wednesday that these
nuclear test problems didn’t result from the RMI government
but from the US government. He underlined that the US
government has the responsibility for health care to the
Enewetak people affected by nuclear testing.
America is a big and rich
nation that caused nuclear test problems to this small
nation, he said.
Underlining his point that
it’s the US that must shoulder the responsibility for health
care, John said: “I’ll say ‘yes’ to my government but never
to the US government.”
“Our wounds (that the US
caused) will never heal,” he added.
John said it didn’t matter
if he didn’t speak excellent English, but he wouldn’t shy
away from bringing these problems directly to the US
government. As long as he is representing the Enewetak
people, John said he’d continue to fight for their rights
with the US government on nuclear test problems.
Bikini Senator Tomaki Juda
added his perspective during the Nitijela session, saying
that President Bush has already acknowledged the US
obligation to help rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan after the
damage caused by the fighting there. There’s no difference
between the US responsibility in those countries and in the
Marshall Islands for the problems its nuclear tests caused,
he said.
“We’re upset losing some of services had before,” Bikini
liaison Jack Niedenthal said in a brief interview. “It
shouldn’t be like this. The US government is responsible and
we shouldn’t have to force the RMI to pony up money to
continue the program. The US has dropped the ball.” |
