RMI to US: Treat us as you do your own people

From The Marshall Islands Journal
April 30, 2004

On March 26, the Embassy organized the first of a two-part briefing.
Embassy staffer Dr. Holly Barker gave a 45-minute presentation to staff from the Senate Energy Committee, the House Resources Committee, and the House International Relations Committee. Following the presentation, Congressional staffers spent an hour and a half discussing several of the issues highlighted in the Embassy’s presentation.

The Embassy presentation focused on the RMI’s request for fairness — in terms of the level of health care and compensation provided to US citizens exposed to radiation, and equity in terms of clean-up of radiologically contaminated areas.

“There was nuclear weapons testing in the United States and there was nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands,” Barker said in her presentation. “The US government conducted its nuclear weapons testing program in the Marshall Islands because it recognized the hazards of these activities. There is great disparity between health care and compensation programs for the people affected by both of these testing programs, and in levels of funding available for clean-up activities.

Barker said that the amount of radioactive iodine released by the 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands was 42 times greater than the amount released by the atmospheric testing in Nevada, 150 times greater than what was released as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, and 8,500 times greater the radiation released from AEC operations at Hanford, Washington.
“The RMI looks to US government standards for addressing radiological contamination and exposure issues with its own citizens as the basis for considering what is appropriate for the Marshall Islands,” Barker said.
“The RMI government is looking for equity in levels of care, funding, and protection — Marshallese citizens should receive the same levels of consideration as US citizens, particularly since the Marshall Islands was a trust territory of the US government during the weapons testing program,” she said.

Lawyers from Rongelap, Bikini and Enewetak, as well as scientific and medical advisors who assisted with the drafting of the RMI’s Changed Circumstances petition contributed significantly to the question and answer period after Barker’s presentation, according to the RMI Embassy.

The Embassy also underscored the importance of the immediate need to extend the 177 Health Care Program (that expires at the end of September) in addition to the long-term needs identified in the Changed Circumstances petition.

The second of the two briefings took place last Friday in Washington. Bill Graham, the Nuclear Claims Tribunal’s Public Advocate, focused on the credibility of the Tribunal process, and on its comparability with US government programs.

The Tribunal’s personal injury awards were based on comparable determinations made by US law, according to the RMI Embassy.

Similarly, the Tribunal’s property damage awards are based on the idea that Marshallese citizens are entitled to a comparable level of radiation protection standards as US citizens. More specifically, the Tribunal uses the US Environmental Protection Agency’s 15 milirem per person per year standard of maximum limit for public exposure to radiation.

Congressional members who recently visited the RMI, including Chairman of the House Resources Committee Rep. Richard Pombo, have said that they intend to hold hearings to consider the elements of the RMI’s Changed Circumstances petition. The Embassy is hopeful a hearing can occur before Congress recesses for the US national elections later this year.

The petition requests funding to build, staff, and maintain a hospital that can adequately address radiation related health care needs, and to provide additional funding to the Nuclear Claims Tribunal so the Tribunal can pay all of its awards in full.

Currently, nearly 45 percent of Marshallese citizens have died without receiving their full awards from the Tribunal due to a lack of Tribunal funds. In comparison, ‘Downwinders’ in the US — Americans exposed to nuclear test fallout from the Nevada tests and who experience certain cancers — receive full funding for their awards within six weeks, the RMI Embassy said.

Zackios ‘discouraged’ by lack of action

The US government’s lack of a timely response on nuclear testing compensation is “discouraging”, Foreign Minister Gerald Zackios told the Journal last week.

But the RMI is moving ahead with its lobbying effort with US Congressional staff in an effort to get action on a petition that has been with the Congress for more than three and a half years, and with the Bush Administration for more than two years.

“We’re pushing for a speedy resolution to this issue,” he said. Zackios said that the detailed briefings held over the past several weeks with key US Congressional staff members is preparing the groundwork for promised hearings in the Congress.

It’s been a “slow process” to get the Bush administration to respond, Zackios said, adding that “it’s discouraging to see the delay in the administration’s review of the ‘Changed Circumstances’ petition.”