oe
UNCLASSIFIED
people are well subsisted and housed, and the medical care
rendered them is excellent, yet, they are still on the small
island of Fjit; but together with the Administering Authority,
the responsible Rongelap leaders, and other Marshallese realize
that long living in an abnormal existence is detrimental to
their society.
They were told that they will soon be going
back to their home istand, Rongelap, and with them, the other
Marshallese are looking forward to the fulfillment of this
promise.
:
Bikini and Eniwetok, like all the other land claims in
the Marshall Islands, have not been compensated for, or returned
to the owners,
We should like to repeat here that, "Land means
a great deal to the Marshallese.
It means more than just a
Place where you can plant your food crops and build your houses;
or a place where you can bury your dead.
of the people.
It is the very life
Take away their land and their
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spirits go also,"
Therefore, we, the members of the Marshallese Corgress
Hold-Over Committee, who are empowerec by the Marshallese
Congress to act in its name when it is not in session and which
is in turn a group of members representing all the municipalities
in the Marshalls, due to the undiminishing threat to our life,
liberty, happiness and possession of land, do hereby submit
this document to the United Nations Visiting Mission with the
request that they send this on to the United Nations Trusteeship
Council as soon as possible, which with its knowledge of our
great concern may then act on our urgent plea and take all steps
Within its power to help remedy the situation.
In closing, we, the members of the Marshallese Congress
Hold-Over Committee want to make it very clear to the United
Nations Visiting Mission that this should not be interpreted
as a reflection of the Trust Territory Government's deliberate
ill-treatment of the Marshallese people or be misconstrued as
a repudiation of the United States as our governing agency for
the United Nations under the
trusteeship agreement, for aside
from repeating our plea to have the nuclear tests within our
home islands stopped as we are fearful of the danger these
lethal weapons can and have inflicted on people living in the
Marshalls, and the deep concern we have for the number of people
wno have been dispossessed of land, we have found the Admin-
istering Authority the most agreeable one we ever had.
Respectfully submitted,
1. Kabua Kabua
7. Henry Samuel
2, Atlan Anien
8. Jiblok
3. Dwight Heine
9. Aiseia David
4, Robert Reimers
10, Amata Kabua
5. Carl Dominick
ll. Lazarus Simon
6, Namu Ermius
12, Lajibili
-~ 5 -
Enclosure III
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