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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
~
eQpe on
~¥
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.”