The US is refusing to engage with the Marshall Islands on compensation for environmental and health damage caused by the dozens of US nuclear weapons tests carried out in the 1940s and 50s, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
The Marshall Islands are home to a major US military base and are essentially treated as a US territory under an agreement known as the Compact of Free Association. But the agreement is due to expire soon, and the dispute over the nuclear weapons test has some members of Congress concerned.
The US lawmakers are not worried that the people of the Marshall Islands haven’t been properly compensated. Instead, they fear China could move in. “China is all too ready to step in and provide the desperately needed infrastructure and climate resiliency investment that is sought by these long-time partners,” 10 Democratic and Republican House members wrote in a letter to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
In the 1980s, the US agreed to give the Marshall Islands a $150 million settlement, but this amount fell well short of what is needed to clean up all of the radioactive debris. “Everyone knows the negotiations at that time were not fair or equitable,” Marshallese Senator David Paul told AP. “When you look at the total cost of property damage and the ongoing health issues to date, it’s a drop in the bucket. It’s an insult.”
A US officials admitted to AP that Washington had “stonewalled” talks on the US’s nuclear legacy. “We know that’s important, but there is a full and final settlement, and both sides agreed to it. So, that issue is just not subject to being reopened,” the official said.
AP also spoke with James Matayoshi, the mayor of Rongelap Atoll on the Marshall Islands. Like hundreds of other Marshallese, Matayoshi had been displaced from his native atoll by the nuclear weapons tests and hasn’t returned. His late mother was pregnant at the time of one of the blasts and gave birth to a stillborn baby due to radiation exposure.
Concerning China, Matayoshi said officials are seeking Asian investments, and any such deals wouldn’t be about Chinese influence. “It would be a business transaction. We don’t advocate for war or any superpower influence. But we want to be able to live in our backyard, and enjoy life here,” he said.
Amerikkka is notorious for not fixing what we fucked up. NO SOUP FOR YOU.
Reparations for this country’s indigenous people whose entire continent we stole? Nope. We’ll build an oil pipeline across your land instead. Compensation for the descendants of the slaves who built this country? Please. We’ll allow white people to kill you with impunity, though.
I fear the people of the Marshall Islands had better not stand on one foot waiting.
Rarely does any power pay compensation. Might makes right is the de facto global code of ethics that many of us struggle against.
Armenians will never be compensated. Ukrainians will never be compensated. If the Marshall Islanders are done right by, it’ll be due to realpolitik only.
If the media played their story, voters would feel pity, but no media coverage, no pity. Out of sight, out of mind.
Even you enjoy calling America racist; it’s easy to hate. However, almost no American cares to help, unless so programmed by the media.
Find a people in the world who live differently from might makes right. It is difficult.
Points well stated. Sad but true…
But when Obama kills, it’s OK, right? It’s only bad when white people do it, right?
The only reason Americans like calling for things like reparations is the media tells Americans to. The US brings in millions of people annually. Many want to move here. Coolidge gave Amerindians equal citizenship. The 14th gave it to blacks. Whites, currently, claim nonwhite heritage to cash in on affirmative action.
The state, and overall system, is only racist in favor of one group, the group that cannot be mentioned. And no, attacking poor whites is not an attack on the oligarchy.
Even the Squad is fake, bought and owned. Pat Buchanan would have ended the wars, but ending interventions would have been racist, apparently.
I have never heard the MSM calling for reparations. I believe in them because it’s the RIGHT thing to do.
And I’ll allow that AOC may be “bought and sold”, but Rashida, Ilhan and Cory?
Never.
The Marshalls are a sad US colony…a melanesian Puerto Rico. Try going with China and see the US fist in your face.