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A10
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By Walter Pincus
Tuardey, Mey 23,1978
Washington Post salt Writer
Island will have to leave their
g on BIThe 139 Marshallese livin
TITE WASTIINGTON POST
available at
used the best instruments
that time.”
mnilttee
Deal outlined to the subco
examination
how last month's medical
had taken
showed the Bikini residents
bodies at
radioactive cesium into their
ted U.S.
levels up to twice the accep
population.
standard for the general
told
Dr. Walter Wy zen, also of DOL,
139 men,
the subcommittee that the
have been
women and children who
past several
living on Bikini for the
active coco
years and eating its radio
have to
nuts and other foods would
ns far the
undergy medical examinatio
the rest of
next year and perhaps
of the radlotheir lives to keep track
invested,
active matter they have
concen:
It was the finding of hich
¢ sium and
trations of radioactive
lards—in
strontium—above U.S. star
ents last
the bodies of the Bikini resid
Interior offimonth that convinced
moved.
cials the people had to be
ommittce
Van Cleve told the subc
{last month)
that although “the tests
diate dancer”
do not reveal an imme
should be
the move from the aloli
time necded
made within 90 days—the
to live and
to pick a temporary place
with alubuild plywood homes there
minum roofs.
commis:
Adrian P. Winkel, hieh
Territory,
sioner of the US Trust
would fy ta
told the suhcommittee he
tell the resi
Bikinl next week and
move and dedenis “the need fur the
for a place
termine their preferences
to settle.”
k Evans (DAt that point, Rep. Fran
ion of what
Coto.) raised the quest
not want to
would be done If they did
leave Bikini.
to require
“We have no choice but
responded.
them to move,” Winkel
d, howThe high commissioner adde
to make
ever, that it might be difficult
use they
the older people move beca
still micht prefer to remain,
own
Two aging Marshallese who
i Island
major pieces of land on Bikin
two family
are patriarchs of the
the peogroups that make up most of
ple now living on the island.
attended
Marshall Islanders who
mecting
yesterday's subcommittee
d convince
were not sure Winkel coul
them to Icave.
was the
(ustcative of the problem
le on Bi
tion was askéd why the peop
when & quesexchange that took place
after they
kini kept eating coconuts
dangerous
had been warned they were
r food and
and supplicd with othe
island.
water from outside the
ict repre
Oscar DeBrum, the distr
Territory govsentative of the Trust
are treasured
ernment said, “Coconuts
d drink coco
hy the people. They woul
the warnnut milk even in the face of
ings.”
when the
DeBrum then noted that
month on
medical team arrived last
them the raBikini, the people offered
of {rienddioactive coconuls as a sign
ship.
le or cut
“either move the peop
ki Juda,:
The Kilf spokesman, Toma
DeBrum sustice that 12
down the coconut trees,”
reminded the subcommi
the Bikinians;
gested.
1946, a Navy officer told
atoll so “it.
approxithey had to leave their
Representatives of the
of man-,
i people who
could be used for the good
:
mately 400 furmer Bikin
d wars.”
kind and to end all worl
told the subBikinians,
now live on Kili Island
The officer compared the
elves as the
thecommittce “we see ours
children of Israel whom
incompe- #49 the
victims of bureaucratic
.
."
tence”
into the Promised Land
Kil group
ly mora
It was questioning by the
“We are,” Juda said. “sad
i four years
] waen
about the safety of Bikin
to the Children of Iscae
akin
the possibility
ered throuch’
ago that first raised
they left Egypt and wand
levels might
We left Bikint.
that dangerous radiation
the desert for 40 ycars.
the ocean’
still exist on the island.
have wandered through
and
were pre
never return.
At the time, U.S. officials
for 32 years and we will
e group to
:
pacing to retucn the entir
to our Promised Land.”
Bukini.
Told
r at Least 29 Years, Hill
Bikinians Must Quit Island fo
.
the site of 23 U.S. nuclear weap
kini
hs and
home atoli within three mont s De30 year
not return for at least
g from @&
cause of radiation remainin
test, &
1954 U. S. hydrogen bomb
ommittes
House Appropriations subc
was told ye terday.
from
Xn earlier plan to move them
her Island
Bikini Istand to Eneu, anot
subcomjn the atoll, was dropped, the
's coco
mittee was told, because Eneu
ity readnuts were showing radioactiv
than govins five to six times higher
iously ex:
eri:ment scientists had prev
pected.
nt ofXva result, Interlor Departme
could not
ficials said yesterday, they
ents would
say where the Bikini resid
eventually end up,
g on Bikinl
Jhe people now livin
n after ®
were the first ones to retur
e En1969 determination by the Atomi
atoll was
erey Commission that the
mination.
safe from radiation conta
had been
From 1946 through 1968 it
ons
tests.
Sidney
Subcommittee Chairman
s {rom the
Yates (D-f1.) asked witnesse
Fnergy,
Departments of Interior and
wed to 60
“Why were these people allo
bark?”
that
“There was no hint in 1969
with coco
there vould be @ problem
," he was
nuts, vewetables and water
, director
told by Ruth G. Vaa Cleve
torial Acof Interior's Office of Terri
...
and vo foodstuff growing
.
tivities.
y brapch,
Joe Deal, of Energy's safet
to test
sald, “There were no coconuts
We
EY