Marshall Islands seeks US apology and full compensation for damage from its 67 nuclear tests
- Pacific nation’s speaker of parliament who lost his own parents early to cancer testifies about decades of health and environmental impact in country
- House hearing comes as US and China jockey for regional clout and while Biden administration’s enhanced budget stalls amid sharp partisan divide
It was the people of the Pacific nation who played a major role in helping Allied forces capture Japanese invaders in the region during World War II, said Kenneth Kedi, speaker of the country’s parliament, in testimony before an Indo-Pacific task force of the House Natural Resources Committee.
Narrating what he called a brief history of the sacrifices made by the Marshall Islands for the US, Kedi told the panel that, after the wartime fighting ended, it was the Marshallese who “without a choice” found themselves in the middle of the Cold War.
The nuclear tests in question took place across the archipelago between 1946 and 1958, and the US made a “massive display of power” by detonating the bombs on the islands, he said.
Kedi testified that the tests “unfortunately” led to high rates of cancer and extensive environmental damage, explaining that both his parents died prematurely from cancer.
“And this is not a unique story for me or for the Marshall Islands. Most families have gone through the same.”
The Marshallese politician quoted a UN report in urging the US to go on record and apologise to his country, saying: “We are yet to get an apology.”
Combined, the tests were “thousands of times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima”, according to a 2015 report published by the Pulitzer Centre. Cancer is a leading cause of death on the Marshall Islands.
Kedi cited the findings of a nuclear claims tribunal set up between the US and the Marshall Islands “to adjudicate and pay substantiated and warranted claims”.
He said the tribunal ran out of funds after paying a small fraction of the damages it awarded, with the total amount of unpaid awards standing at US$3 billion in current dollars.
Marshallese people had sacrificed significantly by giving their traditional land to the US for military use, Kedi testified.
In the event of “any war coming from, who knows where,” the Marshall Islands would be “the first shield of defence before anything”, he added.
The American military installation on the country’s largest island, Kwajalein Atoll, has been described by the US Department of Defence as “an important asset that would be costly and difficult to replicate”.
The pacts granted the US military access to each nation’s land, air and sea in exchange for financial assistance and permission to legally live, work and go to school in the US.
“We see the presence and influence of China on a daily basis,” Joseph Yun, Biden’s special envoy for Cofa negotiations, told the panel on Tuesday.
“To take somehow our friendship with these compact states for granted will be a real mistake,” he testified.
In May, Yun said the US had finalised compact terms with Micronesia and Palau and that he hoped the Marshall Islands would soon follow suit. However, the negotiations have dragged on.
The Biden administration’s enhanced budget for the region also awaits congressional approval, with new Cofa promises extremely difficult to fulfil amid fierce partisan disagreements over federal spending.
Yun believed that if Congress was unable to pass the budget in a timely manner “our credibility will suffer enormous damage”.
Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jnr sounded a similar warning before the House committee on Tuesday, testifying that despite the US installing on Palau its closest early-warning radar to Asia, his country had remained “economically challenged”.
“Continuation of the relationship”, Whipps added, “can’t be taken for granted”.