Bikini islanders look for a new home

Transcript

The Bikinian community in the Marshall Islands are exploring resettlement options - nearly 70 years after the islanders were evacuated from their atoll because of US nuclear weapons tests.

Community leaders say their people want to leave Kili island where thousands have lived for decades because increasingly bad flooding from high tides and storms is making the island uninhabitable.

Liaison Officer Jack Niedenthal says it is a sad situation.

JACK NIEDENTHAL:  It's becoming almost unliveable on Kili because it seems to be happening every year and we just feel like at this time we have to do something about that.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  The call to be resettled in the US mainland, is there any other alternative options within the Marshall Islands where people could like?

JN:  We have not had a community meeting.  We have not had a council meeting where we have openly discussed what I plan is going to be.  People at this point are talking and they're coming up with ideas.  A lot of people have different kinds of ideas.  Some people want to go to the US, other people want to try to fortify Kili.  So it's mostly in the discussion period and I think what has to happen is we have to meet as a community with our leaders and decide exactly where we go from here.  It's a very, very disheartening discussion we need to have because Kili was where the people of Bikini was put in the 1940s by the United States government when they used their atoll for nuclear testing so it has been home for people for more than 70 years.  I have lived there three years myself.  So to suddenly just say okay we are going to leave, it's not that easy a decision to make even when your place is being inundated with the sea.  It's still home and it's a very tough discussion I think a lot of people are going to have to have on our end.

KV:  Historically, it's another shift, another relocation.

JN:  Again, you come back to that word, it's just very saddening that here these people are who sacrificed their homes and in many ways their lives.  These people sacrificed quite a bit and now even though they have sacrificed here they are on this place they were moved to and they're going to have to move again.  They were called the 'nuclear nomads' when they first began their movement.  They've gone from place to place to place.  This place just happened to be a longer stay but now they have to go somewhere else.

KV:  Community leader were wanting to bring up their concerns with the US Assistant Secretary of Interior during her visit.  Do you know if that happened?

JN:  Yes I was at that meeting.  There was a lot of council members and what we did is that we basically showed her many pictures that we have of Kili over the last four years getting hit with these high tides and explaining to her that this is not something that happens once.  It happens over and over again and that something has to be done and morally the United States has an obligation here because they did put the people of Bikini on Kili Island so we did talk to Assistant Secretary Esther quite a bit and we explained to her the situation we have and she seems very supportive I'm happy to say and very sympathetic to what people are going through there so it makes us feel good when you have a US government official react like that.

Mr Niedenthal says community meetings will be held this month on the issue.