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A SENATE JOINT RESOLUTIOR
Respectfully apprising the United States Congress of the sense of the Congress
of Micronesia that the restoration and rehabilitation costs of Bikini Atoll
should be borne jointly by the United States Department of Defense and the
Atomic Energy Commission.
WHEREAS, in 1946 the Bikini people were moved to Kili Island in the
southern ‘sector of the Marshall Islands District where they had to eke out
a living from the meager products of poor fishing waters and poor soil the
exodus being instigated under the pretext that the nuclear experiments to
be conducted on their islands would benefit mankind;
and
WHEREAS, between 1946 and 1956 twenty-three thermonuclear detonations
stripped and scarred the islands of Bikini Atoll of vegetation and any
remnants of living ercatures inhabiting the islands, resultins in scrap
metal debris marring the once beautiful landscape of lush foliage and
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ll
azure sea3 and
_
WHEREAS, after much instigation and many petitions the people of Bikini
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Atoll were allowed to return to their islands with a promise of a rehabilita-
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tion and restoration program to settle the people in their lands and to
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provide them public services and projects; and
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WHEREAS, except for the initial clean-up of the islands by the United
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States Defense Department, the restoration costs are being budgeted for
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and taken out of the Federal grant funds for the operation of the Government
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of the Trust TErritory and for essential public projects of first priority
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order; and
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WHEREAS, the Trust Territery Government is presently under a budgetary
authorization ceiling which it must not exceed during each fiscal period,
a