US Government Sued By Bikini Islanders, page 1

The US Government are being sued by Bikini islanders who seek to get the compensation they were awarded in 2001. The compensation was for being forced to leave their homes to make way of US nuclear tests. The Bikini islanders have received less than one-half of one per cent of the 771 million Australian dollars they were awarded in 2001.

Herald Sun: Bikini residents sue over tests

13 apr 06

BIKINI Islanders are suing the US Government seeking more than $A766 million in compensation after they were forced from their homes 60 years ago to make way for nuclear tests. Bikini, which is part of the central Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands, is asking the US Court of Federal Claims to order the US Government to pay a nuclear test compensation award approved in 2001, but so far unpaid by a Nuclear Claims Tribunal.

A total of 23 nuclear tests were held on Bikini between 1946 and 1958. After more than seven years of legal wrangling, the Majuro-based tribunal awarded the Bikinians $A771 million in 2001. "Due to woefully inadequate funding provided by the United States - only $A62.6 million - the tribunal was able to pay the Bikinians only $A3.15 million, or less than one-half of one per cent of their award," the lawsuit said.

The US Navy evacuated the Bikinians in March 1946. At the time US Navy Commodore Ben Wyatt told the islanders that the US was trying to learn how to use (nuclear weapons) for the good of mankind and to "end all world wars". According to official navy records, he then asked the Bikini people to "sacrifice their islands for the welfare of all men". The Bikini islanders did not wish to leave but believed they were powerless to resist the US decision, the suit said. The people were moved by the Navy three times. After nearly starving to death on the first island they were sent to, the population ended up on Kili Island in 1948, where they have lived since.

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In 1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that Bikini was safe and told them they could return home. 100 people did move back but they were evacuated again in 1978 when it turned out it was not safe anyway. The tests made in 1968 to claim it was safe were wrong. The tests wrongfully assumed that Bikinians would consume just one spoonful of liquid a day. They say that Bikini is still not safe for human habitation. The Bikinians didn´t starve to death and they didn´t die of thirst or of radiation, so now the US will have to pay them. I hope they do...