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March 01, 2009
STATEMENT BY H.E. PRESIDENT LITOKWA TOMEING
Nuclear Survivors Remembrance Day
2 March 2009
Each year, we come here to pay tribute to those of our brothers and sisters who have passed on as victims of the nuclear testing program. Amidst our sorrow, we remember them in our prayers and in our devotionals. We recall their suffering, their bravery and courage.
We also remember the survivors of that tragic event. Many are here with us today; others are with families either in outer islands or in the United States.
Wherever you are, I want to assure you that your affliction is our affliction too; your burden is our burden; day in and day out we feel the weight of your hardships. The scars of your eternal agony are not a thing of the past. They never were. They remain, as they will in the future, indelibly etched in the collective conscience of this country, as fresh as ever.
Recorded data of the tragic event that spanned from 1946 to 1958 shows it dwarfed Hiroshima, and paled Chernobyl into insignificance.
Recorded and official history may have inadvertently distorted the effect in order to provide justification to the unfortunate nuclear testing program, or in order to satisfy scientific research objectives.
But the real effect, viewed in concrete terms, manifests itself in pitiful human conditions: in deaths, deformities and permanent psychological defects, in suffering and deprivations. The sheer gravity of injury defies that which has been disguised and altered in records.
Recent testimony provided in Congressional hearing reveals the inadequacy of past and prevailing instruments to accurately project or measure the nature of future potential abnormalities. This is a frightful thought.
Thus it is not that we want to continue carrying this burden with us for its own sake. It is that while we are presently grappling with the need to sort out the horrors of the past and the present, the uncertain and unclear future still looms out there.
It is for this reason that we cannot afford to throw off the yoke that binds us to this burden. President Amata Kabua bore it throughout his Presidency; President Imata Kabua did not relinquish his solemn duty; President Kessai Note fought as hard as he could. The issue transcends all political boundaries and adherences. We will not give up now.
Some of my friends- Americans and Marshallese alike– have raised with me their observation that I have been too courteous and gracious in bringing this matter to the attention of our American friends. I wanted to remind them of what President Kennedy said in his inaugural speech, January 1961 that “civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.”
But if I should be less than civil, let me say to you today that we have an impasse that is jammed in political and legal quandary. We have not been able to nudge the issue across and over towards concrete consideration for human suffering. Our present and imminent reality is that we have people who have not been compensated for three years because the Nuclear Claims Tribunal does not have enough funds to make payments. And there is insufficient fund to make payments because the so called Nuclear Fund has been exhausted. If we cannot solve this problem through open and frank discussion with our closest ally for fear that we may upset them, or if we should balk from this duty because of the continuous propensity of political and legal decisions to thwart our effort, then how, where and to whom should we take our concern?
As a way forward, I lay before you today a perspective: Some groups have urged to let the political process take its course with all its twists and turn. They have cautioned that we should let the outcome of the process come in whatever forms, be it ex gratia or any other definition. In short, take a passive approach which is, don’t do anything. I disagree. Others have urged to let the legal process proceed whenever there is the appearance of a chance. I want to remind this group of what a U.S. Senator from Nevada once said that the legal route was nothing more than a “cruel hoax”; it raised our hope then truncated it with decisions such as “this court lacks jurisdiction,” or as the last U.S. administration said, “this case has no legal basis”.
To both fronts, however, my government gives its unrelenting support. We must stand firm. No door to any option will be overlooked.
But my earnest appeal to you today, is neither political nor legal. I appeal directly to our collective moral conscience. I appeal to Marshallese and all fair-minded Americans here and in your great country; I appeal to religious organizations here and in the United States; I appeal to all those who abide by the doctrine of fairness.
I believe that which is morally reprehensive cannot be natural justice, it cannot be honorable. That which is dehumanizing to the weak or victim cannot be humanizing to the powerful. Both the weak and the powerful are intricate part of this moral challenge. We either win the fight together or we are both losers. It is a challenge to both of our people: Marshallese and Americans, to both our government and the United States Government.
I appeal to the government of the most powerful country in the world. If a lowly inhabitant on the island of Bikini, out of the goodness of his heart, over six decades ago, could freely offer his island for the testing of nuclear weapons for the “sake of world peace, for the good of mankind”, clearly much, much more is expected from the moral standard bearer of the free world.
What better course of action to take than to be guided by the pledge of a U.S President who said, ‘we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend to assure the survival and success of liberty”. What better course of action to take than to reinvigorate the spirit of his pledge to help those in “huts and villages across the globe struggling to break free of the bonds of mass misery.”
I call upon the American Government. Let us sit down and work out what is sensible and rational. Let us explore the problems that persist over this nuclear dilemma. Let us formulate effective proposals for its final resolution. Let us right this wrong and do justice by removing all persistent postures of contradictions. Armed with “audacity of hope,” let us strive to remove the misery of thousands of Marshallese suffering from the effect of nuclear testing once and for all. Only by this way can we enlighten ourselves from the moral dead-weight of inaction.
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