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By GERALD KATO

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“PAREDSC
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Advertiser Staff Writer
The people of Bikini
atoll, exiled for 30 years
while their homeland was
being used as a nuclear .
testing ground, have filed

gee As Poe

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eQpe on

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Sr eet

@ Contingencyrelocation of Bikinis residents.
eJmmediate medical
examinations of all those
who now are living on the

aus, requiring the Energy Research and Develop
ment Administration to
furnish technical assistance and facilities.
e Complete aerial radio-

a massive lawsuit against“:*

the U.S. Government to.

secure what they hope *will be their final return
home.

logica: surveys of the
Bikini and other northern
Marshall atolls to draw
eoneclus.ens om the rosks

Attorney George M,

Allen of the Micronesian
Legal Services Corp fllec
he lawsuit on behalf
the people of Bikini in
edeia: Cource here yes-

posed by radiation. This
ta
NGiats Se part ul the
om
podghce woh the Nauuna,

ierday
The suit la asking the

kvayrronnmental

THE SUTT aneges that
ate peoye
Pemuite have

(OSt faith

Atomic

Research aud Develap

ment

Admonistration

Rach Were desixnated

7

carry out the radivivgice
cS

2u@

oaudik

Le

THE PEOPLE uw Sintin

SavYS

PNey

tye

wirtie fle 6 ASen

were removed after Worid

rhe sails addKing Gidt a

War il when the Lnited
States decided to use the
425 acre ato. for an atom-

panel of scientific personnei be appointed to ana-

ic testing ground. About

Advert ser ubctu Oy Cat ea Cratiyen

23 nuclear tests were con-

THE LAWSUIT names
as defendants Robert C.
Seamans Jr., administrator, U.S. Energy Re
search and Development

ine

its suecessor, the Energy

Jeturn

During that time, the

ai

Energy Commission and

waved w vihers woe may

ouple were moved from
one atoll to another in the
Murshall Islands. There
are now about 860 persons
in the Bikini population,
most of whom Live in Kili.
A returm to Bikini had
been scheduled in September but the Interlor Department announced that
the atoll was still unsafe.

Paliee

Soak

ourt ta issue an order for
voamediate
medica:
evamination of the 75 nen
sons who have returned to
che atoll, risking exposure
to radiation. It also seeds
a complete radiological
survey of ¢ne atoli to
determine the rigks in-

wucted there between 146
and 1958.

possible risks involved.

Balos (eft) and his fellow Bikini islanders have turned io the courts to expedite their return home.
Administration;

J,

Stanley,

William

director,

Pacific Area Support Office, U.S. Energy Research and Development
Aamuinistration; James R.
Schlesinger, secretary of
defense: and Kent Frizzell, acting sicretary of
the interior,
Also, Cred M. Zeder,
director, Office of Teri ito
ries; Edward E. John
ston, high commissioner

of the Trust Territories;
Oscar Debrum, district
administrator, Marshall

Islands;
Ford.

and President

In effect, the suit al-

leges that the U.S. Gov-

said his people are amxious to return to their
homeland but they want
to be sure that it’s safe lo
return.

ermment has not kept its
promise to return the people of Bikini to their
hnome'and. It seeks court
action to move the resetUement program along,
with the necessary radiological and environmental
surveys to insure that the
atoll is safe to live on.

the United States Government as weil as the Trust
Territones Government

ONE OF THE plaintiffs
in the suit, Henchi Balos,

us everything we needed.
They haven't done any-

“All these 30 years we
were expecting that we
would be treated better
and yet nothing has been
done," he said.
“We were promised by

that they would

provide

Thin

to

keep

their

promises.
“We've been patiently
waiting up to now and it

seems like nobody cares,

so, as a result, we thought

by taking action we would
be treated better than
that.”’
-

AMONG THE things
being sought in the suit
are

@A bar against anyone

going to the atoll unless
that person is informed,
in the Marshallese !an-

guage if fiecessary, of the

vyre the data from radio‘

sal testy of the ostand

Phe

court

should

take

control
over agency
spending and monitor the

eventual

resetiiement of

the people, the suit says.

THE COLLAPSE of the
Bikini resettiement represents a Classic case of bureaucratic dysfunction,’
the suit said
“Money ts still being
spent;

meetings are sti

being heid;

bureaucrats

continue to fy ali over the
northern hemisphere on
government expense ac-

counts, but nothing is
being done about the peo
ple of Bikini.”

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