‘THE New YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17,1975 fion of large sharks that”enter _ BikiniNatives Sue for ReturnofAtoll t, * ro . ' . : laway by the 23 atomic andjis' to examine : : urine .speci- i ‘By JONNORDHEIMER hydrogen devices exploded ‘at/mens of those on the island, t HONOLULU, Oct. 16—Twen-|the, atoll between 1946 andjaccording to lawyers wt the evan , : * han aftertheywer 1958. Micronesian But last August, the Energy|Corporation, Legal . Services an antipoverty to clear the way for the peace-/Research and Development Ad-|agency representing theisland. . ‘time testing of nuclear wea- ministration reversed earlier |ets . pons, the exiled people of Bikini assessments and said that the Some of the new. settlers ‘are suing the United States island, its drinking water and have been drinking water from ‘Government to safeguard the plant life were still contaminat- the ground and consuming vegetables on the island for near-Yeturn to their island home. ed Fearful that the long-awaited ly three years, it was noted. > In a suit filed in Federal “We had already started to District Court here, the Biki- return was again being indefimians charged that agencies of nitely postponed, the islanders worry when the palm seedlings “the Government had failed in most of whom live in poverty(we planted turned “orange,” heir obligation to protect the on a small, remote island else- said one of the Bikini leaders matives who had already re- where in the Marshall Islands in Honolulu to file the . suit. chain—decided to go to court The bulk of the Bikinians turned to the island. '- The islanders contended that for the first time to protect and their dependents live on . the remote island of Kili, about damadequate measurements of their interests. 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|speniding most of the island of Bikini to of exile in isolation and despair. bout 75. persons now living the determine finally if it is fit]. Lore Kessibuki, the mragisthere. _ ‘ Ie a larger sense, the suit for human life. So far, the trate at Kili, said that the 163 seeks to resolve. the entire re- suit maintained, the Govern- natives of Bikini had no option gettiement issue, and reflects ment has approached the prob- but to comply when the Navy a loss of confidence that the lem in an unever, slip shod ‘temporarily” relocatéd them Government will ever allow all way, refusing to employ highly|in 1946 so that the atomic testthe islanders to return to the sophisticated technical equip-ling program called Operation ment to measure radiation Crossroads could be conducted nuclear-wasted atoll. there. at the atoll. Promised Return jin 1968 “They had all the power,” Radiation Checks Asked Fhe Bikinians, 816 in number, Mr. Kessibuki said in Marshalhad been promised a permanent The Bikinians also asked the lese, the language of the isreturn since 1968, when Pres- court to order the Government lands. “We were in fear.” ‘ident Johnson announced that to relocate temporarily the men Until American forces fanded radiation Jevels at Bikini had and women living at present in Bikini in 1944, the island dropped beneath the danger on Bikini, and to use the best had been under Japanese conmethods available to check trol since 1914. Before that, point for habitation. -The first move toward reset- them for harmful effects of it had been run by -German tlement began.in 1972 when radiation. colonialists who marketed ‘three families and workers re- So far, despite the nuclear dried copra produced from rich turned to Bikini to build homes agency ’s warning, all Govern- Bikini coconut palm groves. — ‘and replant vegetation blasted|ment ‘physicians have done be «Bs 0._._ Miles ' TRUST TERRITORY OF . “] : THE PACIFIC ISLANDS i {Micronesia) wen peeen eS MARIANAS: ety oF i ind ae" h fa . tieth srt ae PHILIPPINES £2242 a re AL a fw a 6 Bi tae, 5 acre 5: carga oo . aes 5 | ���Sy 5 | i < gis | SD So, a a) fo PAPUA | ' “y 1 eee A NO} NEW GUINEA Fil . Teo! ae Lito TAUSTRALIA™ the center. The island of Bikini, on the eastern side of thering, is two miles long, but fas a * Nuclear testing in aadeof wee HAWAI\-+— 2 . EQUATOR oo, 7 The New York Times/Oct. 17, 1975 a c= The atoll ‘was a ring of 26 sall islands forming’ a@£ircie ith a 24-mile-wide lagoon in total area of only two-thirds no Wa of a square mile.- 2 == ee] ENIWETOKE Oe an u. Pacific Ocean 7 .& teeCAROLINE IS.” ge pee INDPNESIAY * ‘ H Many Bikini Islanders have lived on Kili for years 9. , change has been the mtroduc- 29 Years After U.S. Moved Them, & 402792 war period sank thousands of tons of World WarII warships moored in the lagoon, and de- from the new underwater.pasgageway opened in the reefs. * Mr. Allen said that .~Government medical and scientific exrts were still divided on the ue of safety for any imhabints of the island, and the it asks the court to order pxtensive_tests to resolve the mBsue—steps that have not yet been undertaken by the govern- ment despite the. decision to allow partial resettlement since 2972. _ « There have been no reports any radiation illness, concern has been ex- ed for the long-term ef- ects of such exposure. : Tie Bikinians docilely left the fos in 1946 with the few essions they could carry, were transported by the avy to Rongerik, an island where American Seabees ‘had stily assembled . makesiift lweliings laid out in @ commuty resembling an American Buburb instead of traditional sland patterns that respected divisions of family households ¥nd power. ‘ f Rongerik was not an ‘atoll and had no lagoon for fishing, and its coconut and breadfruit ources were no sufficient sustain the new population. Sy early 1948 the transplanted Sikinians were starving to Meath. . %, The Navy rescued them, and Bfter a stay of several months en the island of Kwajalein, ie wslanders were removed to i. Kili was also without & lagoon and had about one- pth the land area of their former home. Also, Kili had more than five time the annual fainfall, and the axis ef the diamond-shaped island provided po leeward, or sheltered, side during the strong northeasterly fade winds of the wwinter pronths, so supplies could not landed by boat for four r five months of the year. - Even during calmer periods required four days by supply t to reach the island from € nearest airstrip. ‘» The islanders were told in fhe nineteen-fifties, Mr. Kessi‘buki said, that the Bikini atoll stroyed several islands, of the western ring, opening a new Geep channel from the ocean into the lagoon. io! . The twisted wreckage on the Was so polluted with radicactivity that there was no likeliren‘that p pe aple could fever nium pollution in the world, Those were years of great depression and despair, he said, bottom of the ‘lagoon is the largest single source iof plutoaccording to George M. All and greater dependency on the Mr. Alien, 32 years old, quit @ lucrative Denver law practice to do antipoverty work in Micronesia. , meager resources of Kili. Some lega] counsel for theislanders. | The nuclear ‘explosions © at the atoll, stripped ill the trees off Bikini, and the isiana ls covered today by a scrub Wegetation, in addition to the edlings recently planted. T toxic nature of sea life an the © lagoon is not entirely known, Mr. Allen said, but one United States Government for food supplies to augment the Natives managed to Jeave the island and find employment Elsewhere in the Marshall chain, ‘and today there are 378 Bikini - related people _ livi- away from the main contin EST-GOPY-AVAILABLE