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Marshall Islands says ‘no’ to extending US pact
MAJURO: Although the Marshall Islands
is one of the most pro-American nations, the future of an
important US missile testing range in this western Pacific nation
is in doubt as landowners refuse to accept rental terms offered by
Washington.
Four years after the US and Marshall Islands leaders signed a
long-term deal for US use of the Reagan test site at Kwajalein
Atoll, landowners say they will not accept another 70 years of
failing services and inhuman conditions, and “there is no way to
convince them that if they accept the new agreement (for long-term
US use) that the situation will change,” Kwajalein senator Tony
deBrum said last Friday.
The current land use agreement (LUA) expires in 2016. But US
ambassador to the Marshall Islands Clyde Bishop said in an
interview that the US was not planning to leave in 2016.
“We see an exciting future for the Reagan test site with new
opportunities created by significant investments by the defence
department,” he said.
But agreement on a new LUA is critical because all land in the
Marshall Islands is privately held, and until the landowners
agree, the US and Marshall Islands governments cannot enforce a
deal that they signed in 2003 extending American operations at
Kwajalein until 2086.
Kwajalein leaders asked for US$19 million annually, but were US$15
million, which is about US$3 million over the existing rental
payment level. The difference has been put into an escrow account
– now at US$14.4 million – waiting to be released when the
landowners agree to the US offer.
But deBrum said the landowners were not going to cave in to US
pressure to sign a new LUA that they don’t agree with just to
collect the money.
DeBrum criticised both governments for “putting pressure” on the
landowners to sign, adding: “I’ve never heard of making people
angry to get them to sign an agreement.”
Bishop said without a new LUA signed by 2009, the multi-million
dollar escrow account would be returned to the US Treasury, unless
the Marshall Islands and US governments decide otherwise.
For the past three years, Ebeye islanders have been struggling
with a failing power plant, sewage pouring out on streets when
power is off, and fresh water shortages.
DeBrum said that Ebeye was an example of a “complete breakdown” in
good governance, which he blamed on the Marshall Islands
government.
“If power is on for 24 hours, it is abnormal,” deBrum said. “I
don’t think there is any area where government services are
functioning adequately.”
Ebeye’s ongoing social and health problems prompted Kwajalein army
commander Col Stevenson Reed to express his concern to the US
Pacific Command in Hawaii. In a memo Reed wrote in July last year,
which was obtained earlier this month, the base commander
described “a potential humanitarian crisis and resulting impact on
the mission of the US army Kwajalein Atoll caused by deteriorating
living conditions on Ebeye … due to the island’s inability to
maintain and operate a power generation plant.
“The population on Ebeye and especially the 1,300 Marshallese
contract (base) workers living there become susceptible to disease
from untreated sewage as well as food-borne illness created by the
lack of refrigeration.”
Kwajalein landowners don’t want to kick out the US, but they are
demanding big changes.
“If this is the best we can do, we’d rather not continue (beyond
2016),” deBrum said. “To prolong the current situation (at Ebeye)
for another 70 years is insane. If there is to be continued US use
of Kwajalein it must be under different circumstances.”
The Marshall Islands voting record at the United Nations mirrors
that of the US, particularly when it comes to Israel. And unlike
many locations worldwide where local residents vocally demand
removal of US bases, Marshall Islanders remain staunchly
pro-American.
But those close relations are being tested by the Kwajalein base
stalemate. – Pacnews
 
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