against ‘apartheid’

Islanders sit in against ‘apartheid’

When 210 protesting Marshall Islanders were forcibly removed by police from the US missile facility at Kwajalein atoll, a five month “sit-in” came to an abrupt end.

But the islanders say they’re not beaten yet. Bruised, perhaps, but not beaten.

The sit-in was a protest at what some islanders claim is the lack of a lease agreement, the use of their atoll as a missile testing site and what they claim is a US version of apartheid in the US-administered UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

Marshallese senator Ataji Balos, chairman of the Kwaja lein Atoll Corporation (KAC) which staged the five-month protest, described the events of their eviction in a dramatic telephone interview.

He said: “On Monday even ing the judge of the High Court of the Marshall Islands issued an order of eminent domain, condemning the land we were occupying and stating that it was needed for immediate use.

“Police from Majuro were sent to Kwajalein to serve the order. We were given one hour to respond.

“I requested to talk to my lawyer which was refused. In one hour the police moved our people ladies, elders, chil dren from our camps. We refused to move from the Paci fic and Ocean View clubs which we were occupying.

“The police used force and handcuffed ladies. Two, three guys lifted them into trucks.

Two ladies fainted and went to hospital. The police were really rough on them.”

Balos said the police took the people to the docks and kept them in uncovered boats for the night.

Landowners at Kwajalein island, the US missile testing range in the Marshall Islands, recently were evicted after a five-month protest sit-in on their ancestral land. They claim US policy is akin to “apartheid” and reject the land lease agreement signed by their government and the US. ED RAMPELL reports.

“The following morning at 6am they took us against our will to Ebeye. I was hand cuffed.”

The Ebeye people, mean while, had learned of the condi tion of the “boat people” and large numbers of them were waiting at the dock.

Balos: “The dock was filled with our people. They jumped into the boats and were thrown off by security.

“We went to nearby South Loi island where we were left until the afternoon. There was no food, water or shelter. We were sent water by our people. ”

In an official statement, Kwajalein Missile Range (KMR) public affairs officer Pat Rob bins said: “With limited assist ance from Kwajalein Missile Range, the Majuro police were able to remove all the demon strators from the four islands within the atoll.”

Robbins put the number of protesters at 140 while about 70 more were removed from three other off-limits isles Meek, a US launching site for minuteman missiles, Enewetok and Omelek, radar tracking and communication stations.

The KAC is protesting against a lease agreement which ex pired last October and was later extended.

Under the terms of the land use agreement, the landowners were paid US$7 million per annum or about $l2OO

each. According to KAC lawyer George Allen, “the landowners are seeking to negotiate directly with the US government, as happens at places like Okinawa and Christchurch, New Zea land.”

The US, however, has been negotiating with the Marshall Islands government and on March 11 both sides signed an agreement extending the ex pired lease.

According to KMR spokes man Robbins, the Marshallese High Court gave ownership of the land to the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ government on April 21. Under the law of eminent domain, said Robbins, the Marshallese government will retain possession of the land at the US military installa tion for three years.

Allen, however, contends that “the law of eminent do main only affects six of the 120 parcels of land at Kwajalein” and insists that the dispute is far from over.

He told FIM that “complex litigation” has been filed chal lenging the military’s right to restrict people from unconde mned land. Defendants cited include Secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger and Secre tary of the Army John Marsh.

Ebeye mayor Alvin Jacklick also believes the trouble in paradise is far from over. He said: “One to two thousand landowners are occupying the Ebeye dock in order to return to

Kwajalein and re-occupy their land.”

The sit-in had also prevented between 600 and 700 Marshal lese labourers from travelling to KMR to work, said Jacklick, and the response to an army edict that absentees would lose their jobs was for many people to walk across the reef to work.

Both Bales and Jacklick stress that there is more at stake than a land agreement.

Balos claims that “the situa tion at Kwajalein atoll is de finitely like apartheid. Our kids aren’t allowed to attend high school at Kwajalein. There isn’t any at Ebeye.

“We can’t use their hospital; ours is inadequate. Their high standard of living three miles away makes Kwajalein island look like a paradise and Ebeye a slum.

“They mistreat and look down on our people as if we are not human beings” and, while South Africa had abolished the notorious pass laws, “Marshal lese still need a pass to travel to Kwajalein. They don’t allow us to live there.”

Kwajalein, thirteen times lar ger than Ebeye, has less than a third of Ebeye’s population (2,500 compared to 8,000).

The Marshallese militants have vowed to continue their protest. Balos and Jacklick plan to petition the UN and will campaign against the proposed compact of free association which would give the US the right to continue using KMR for at least another 30 years.

“The landowners are deter mined to spread the sit-in all over the atoll by walking the reef,” said the mayor.

Balos added: “We are a small people, but we are not going to give up fighting for our rights. ”