Bikinians launch fight
NZPA-Reuter Washington One thousand Pacific islanders today begin a lastditch effort to return to their old land. The people of tiny Bikini atoll assert that the United States has a legal and moral obligation to clean up their home after blasting and contaminating it for 12 years with atomic and hydrogen bomb tests. The Bikinians, now scraping a meagre existence
under United States charity on an island they call a prison, this week set out on a campaign that will take them to court and Congress and later to the United Nations in an effort to make Washington live up to a promise that they say it made 38 years ago. “When we left in 1946 we were told not to worry, that Uncle Sam would look after us, and as soon as the United States was done with
testing we would be returned home,” said Senator Henchi Balos, who represents Bikini in the Marshall Islands Legislature. The Bikinians face a deadline after 38 years in their “wilderness.” The United States has reached a partial independence agreement with the Marshall Islands, of which Bikini is a part, and if it is ratified by Congress, Washington will be absolved
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Press, 2 May 1984, Page 8
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201Bikinians launch fight Press, 2 May 1984, Page 8
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