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The next hearing on nuclear test issues is scheduled for
July 19 in the US Senate, according to Foreign Minister
Gerald Zackios. He indicated that he expects the Senate
hearing to “be more focused” because staff from the Senate
side were at the House hearing last month. “We’ll have to be
better prepared,” he added. “I’m expecting more focus on
whether or not there have been ‘changed circumstances,’” he
told the Journal this week.
A Marshall Islands petition is pending with the Congress
that seeks US funding for health care and compensation for
nuclear test damage. The petition was filed according to a
provision in the first Compact with the US that allows the
RMI to seek additional compensation from the Congress if it
can show that there have been ‘changed circumstances’ since
the 177 compensation agreement was negotiated in the early
1980s.
But, he said, whether or not the Congress ultimately
decides that there are changed circumstances, House
Resources Committee chairman Rep. Richard Pombo said at the
hearing that “there is a continuing responsibility of the
US” on this issue.
He called the initial hearing in the House “a positive
step forward to address nuclear testing issues in the RMI.”
Zackios said that the RMI’s position and that of
individual islands is that “there are changed
circumstances.”
Zackios also said that despite the Bush administration’s
position against providing additional compensation, “we can
achieve a level of success with the Congress.
“Our goal is to have the US address nuclear testing
problems in the Marshall Islands.”
He alluded to various options that may present themselves
during the course of the Congressional review of the RMI’s
petition and added that “we need to be open-minded” on
options that are presented.
On current funding for the 177 Health Program, Zackios
indicated that it appears that the Senate is joining the
House in supporting a $1 million appropriation for the new
fiscal year budget. This is half the level of funding
provided for medical services to the four atoll populations
during the first Compact.
Zackios said there had been no formal discussions about
the approximately $6 million annual funding provided to the
Department of Energy for monitoring and related activities
in the RMI, and the RMI’s request for additional 177 Health
Program funding.
These funding items need additional review, particularly
the 177 Health Program because it is essential that funding
provided meet the needs of Marshallese, Zackios said. He
said in view of a recent US National Cancer Institute study
that shows that cancers are not restricted to the four
atolls that the US says are exposed, a medical program
should not be restrictive.
Tribunal lives on until 2006
Foreign Minister Gerald Zackios said this week that the
need for the United States government to continue
declassifying nuclear test-related information is more
critical than ever as the ‘changed circumstances petition’
review process plays out in the US Congress.
“We need declassified information so that we understand
the whole picture (about the US nuclear testing program),”
he told the Journal.
President Note has repeatedly asked the US government to
keep declassifying material for the RMI.
In the mid-1990s, under President Bill Clinton, the US
Department of Energy and other agencies began declassifying
thousands of documents that had been kept secret since the
testing period in the 1950s.
The US government has provided hundreds of boxes and
thousands of documents — many of them now posted to the
DOE’s Web site — to the RMI government since that time. Some
of those US documents are being used by the RMI as part of
the its changed circumstances petition.
But Zackios said the flow of declassified reports and
studies in recent months has been “very slow.”
“It’s very important to keep declassifying information,”
he said.
Flow declassified material too slow
The life of the Nuclear Claims Tribunal has been extended
at least until the end of fiscal year 2006 by agreement
between the Cabinet and the Tribunal.
The Tribunal has been on a year-to-year status since the end
of the first Compact in September 2003.
“It will continue to operate during the course of the
changed circumstances process,” said Foreign Minister Gerald
Zackios. “It’s important to the have the Tribunal in
existence (as the RMI’s nuclear test compensation petition
is with the US Congress).”
The status of the Tribunal is reviewed annually in the
June or July period.
The fund stands at about $4 million, its lowest ever.
Normally, the Tribunal does not make a decision about annual
payments until about one month before the late October date
that it has made payments in the past. |
