4 oe we eee eee gee ee But Jast August, the Energy|Corporation, to clear the way for the peace- Research and lop | 4 Legal Services 7 olf. oo ENIWETOKE’ ~ .. time testing of nuclear wea- ministration=epevers@@- earlier |ets. Some of the new settlers are suing the United States island, its drinking water and have been drinking water from and consuming vegGovernment to safeguard the plant life were still contaminat- the etables on the island for nearreturn to their’ island home. Fearful that the long-awaited ly three years, it was noted. In a suit filed in Federal . oy 1%Jp Pacific Ocean “" eg _ aa b| OY. 1.” CAROLINE IS. tee AL og gts] pons, the exiled people of Bikini assessments and said that the :- — tnd wee = 4 - = eee eee en MARIANAS: ' g (Micronesia) weg an’ antipove 2: 5° - ed, THEPACIFICISLANDS . “Tegency representing the island- = TRUST TERRITORY OF = . away by the 23 atomic and is to examine urine speciBy JON NORDHEIMER hydrogen devices exploded ‘at|mens of those on the island, Specta! to The New York Tinses HONOLULU, Oct. 16—Twen- the atoll. between 1946 and according to lawyers of the 1958. Micronesian ~ } a 29 Years AfterU.S.1Moved Them, Bikini Natives Sue for ReturnofAtoll ty-nine years after they were rethoved ftom ther Pacific atoll Stemi “anne ~ cable’ bee reeaoat ST nee ~-- AOE 7 OS . cote . ¢. z , x: SQUATOR , wos, . . District Court here, the Biki-/retum wap Ggein being indefi- “We hadalready startedto The New York Timen/Oct. 17, 1975 nians charged that agencies of|nitely podty theislartdets worry whenthe palm seedlings the Government had failed in|—most of Whom live in poverty ‘we planted turned orange,” have lived on Kili for years Islanders Bikini Many ther obligationio protect the on a small, ‘remote island else- said one of the Bikini leaders natives who already re- where in the Marshall Islands in Honolulu to file the suit. chain—decided to go to court The bulk of the Bikinians small islands forming a circle| trees off Bikini, and the island turned to the istand. The islanders contended that for the first time to protect and their dependents live on with a 24-mile-wide lagoon in is covered today by a scru " the remote island of Kili, about in addition to inadequate measurements of their interests. the center. The island of Bikini, vegetation, seedlings recently planted. Th the levels of radioactivity on Their suit calls first for a 450 miles southeast of the atoll, Bikini might have endangered complete scientific survey of spending most of the years on the eastern side of the ring, toxic nature of sea life inside about 75 persons now living the island of Bikini to of exile in isolation and despair. is two miles long, but has a the lagoon is not entirel determine finally if it is fit Lore Kessibuki, the magis- total area of only two-thirds known, Mr. Allen said, but ong _ there. change has been the introduc aS, Is a larger sense, the suit for human life. So far, the trate at Kili, sald that the 163 of a square mile. Nuclear testing {n thé. post- tion of large sharks that enter seeks to resolve the entire re- suit maintained, the Govern- natives of Bikini had no option of from the new underwater pas settlement issue, and reflects ment has approached the prob- but to comply when the Navy war period sank thousards med in the reefs. a loss of confidence that the lem in an uneverr, slip shod “temporarily” nelocated them tons of World War II warships sageway » Government will ever allow .all way,refusing to employ highly in 1946 so that the atomic test- moored itt thé lagoon,‘and de-{ Mr. AlleO said that Govern‘the islanders to return to the sophisticated technical equip- ing program calfed Opetation stroyed sévérdl wlands ment to measure radiation Crossroads could be conducted western ring, openin: ‘ofthe Press Intelligence, Inc. nuclear-wasted atoll. WASHINGTON, D.C. deep channel] from the ocean into the lagoon. Front Edit Other The twisted wreckage on the Poge Page Page bottom of the lagoon is the largest single source of pluto-; dropped according to eorge M. Allen TIMES legal counsel for e islanders.: Mr. Allen, 32 years old, quit! ident Johnson announced that tadiation Tévels at Bikini had beneath the danger point for habitation. The first move toward reset- tlement began. in 1972 when three families and workers returned to Biking to build homes and replant vegetation blasted et the atoll. “They had all the pdwer,” Mr. Kessibuki said in Marshallese, the language of the islands. “We were in fear.” to relocate temporarily the men Until American forces landed and women living at present in Bikini in 1944, the island on Bikini, and to use the best had been under Japanese conmethods available to check trol since 1914. Before that, them. for harmful effects of it had been run by German radiation. colonialists who. marketed So far, despite the nuclear dried copra produced from tich agency's warning, all Govern- Bikini coconut palm groves. ment physicians have done The atoll was a ring of 26 NEW YORK, NEW YORK nium pollution in the world, a lucrative Denver law practice: M to do antipoverty work in Mi-| S$ cronesia. ew The nuclear explosions at: the atoll stripped all the 20001 t s a eet 4 yi Ob A be - 1,419,329 CLYHNVFL BEST COPY AVAILABLE 71IV4C0 there, Promised Return in 1968 Radiation Checks Asked The Bikinians, 816 in number, had been promised a permanent The Bikinians also asked the return since 1968, when Pres- court to order the Government