Some people were put on our beautiful blue-green planet to do unqualified good for living creatures and the biosphere. Tony de Brum, who died earlier this week in his home community on the Pacific Marshall islands, was one such hero, to whom humanity owes a huge debt:
Tony deBrum, champion of action on climate change and nuclear abolition, dies
Tony deBrum, champion of action on climate change and nuclear abolition, dies
On October 28, 2015, Beyond Nuclear (USA) was honored to be the presenter of the Nuclear-Free Future Award (NFFA) to Tony deBrum, Former Republic of the Marshall Islands Foreign Minister. Tony worked tirelessly to bring the world's attention to the deadly legacy of the 67 U.S. atomic bomb tests over the RMI and became a leading voice in calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Recently, deBrum had helped lead two law suits against nuclear weapons countries. He also played a pivotal role in securing the Paris Climate Accord, and dedicated his recent years to the crisis of climate change, already being felt on his low-lying islands. We are now saddened to report that Minister deBrum, 72, died August 22 at his Majuro home surrounded by family. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, deBrum won the Right Livelihood Award (pictured) in the same year he was honored by the NFFA. The Adam Horowitz film, Nuclear Savage, highlights much of deBrum's investigative work on the horrifying health consequences to Marshall Islanders during the 12 the years of atomic bomb tests there
Tony: ‘A giant of history’
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HILDA HEINE President It is with great sadness and a very heavy heart that I announce that the Marshall Islands lost a national hero Tuesday with the passing of our Climate Ambassador and former Minister Tony deBrum. Tony passed away peacefully in Majuro, surrounded by his proud father, as well as his wife
First nuclear legacy conference
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marshallislandsjournal.com
Following the traditional annual program commemorating Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day at the Meto Court area in front of the capitol building Wednesday morning, the ...
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March 9, 2017 by Journal
Clockwise from left are Nuclear Legacy Conference speakers Tony ‘Ton-Ton’ deBrum Kattil, Dr. Neal Palafox, Tony deBrum, Bill Graham, Kenneth Kedi, Glenn Alcalay, Trudy Peterson, and Emlyn Hughes. Photos: Hilary Hosia. Following the traditional annual program commemorating Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day at the Meto Court area in front of the capitol building Wednesday morning, the RMI’s first ever nuclear legacy conference opened in the afternoon at the International Conference Center. The theme for the conference was “Charting a Journey Toward Justice.”After an invocation by the Reverend Enja Enos, Minister of Foreign Affairs John Silk gave welcoming remarks during which he explained that his involvement in dealing with the nuclear legacy began in the 1980s when he worked for Micronesian Legal Services Corporation assisting the people of Enewetak when they were moved back to their atoll from Ujelang.
He said that his experiences at that time taught him that the nuclear weapons testing program had “forever altered our culture.”
Minister Silk shared a personal perspective on the effects of the weapons testing that he has through his grandchildren. Five of them are descendants of the group of Bikinians originally removed from their atoll in 1946 and two are part Enewetakese. He described all of them as “children of the 21st century who are also orphans of the 20th century” and said the fact that they cannot return and live on all of the islands in their atolls “is testimony to the fact that the nuclear legacy is intergenerational for the Marshallese people.”
The conference included speeches by a wide range of experts and people with personal stories. A sample follows. To read the whole Nuclear Legacy Conference report, subscribe to the Journal by emailing us at marshallislandsjournal@gmail.com.
By HILARY HOSIA
Of all the dignitaries attending the first Nuclear Legacy Conference at the International Conference Center last week, including related activities held outside the ICC, the US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Karen Stewart likely holds the record for attending all the conference events and for staying throughout the duration of each program.
Other notable people at the conference included the following:
Tony “Ton-Ton” deBrum Kattil
The youngest participant in the summit was 8-year old Tony “Ton-Ton” deBrum Kattil, who is related to both Tony deBrum and Charlie Domnick. The third grader brought laughter to the audience with this story: “When jimma (grandfather) Charlie was a small boy in Likep, he didn’t want to gather the leaves, as was the chore in those days. But when the bomb went off, jimma Charlie ran out of the house with no clothes on.”
Following young Tony’s speech, Charles Domnick added: “No one in the world has been exposed twice,” again the audience lit up in laughter as they pictured the scene.
Climate Change Ambassador Tony deBrum, Keynote Address
“We don’t dwell in the past. The Marshallese outrigger canoe does not have a rearview mirror. It’s like when you go fishing and you’re in the middle of the school and tuna is jumping. And you’re still trying to get your lines and your bait and your lures ready. They (tuna) will not wait for you to put your line together.
Things that had happened to us has happened already, and there can be no more waiting time. We need to create a solution at our own pace with the knowledge that we have.
We need to have our advisors, our scientists and our council inspect and advise the government to take a proper step forward.”
‘Anger hasn’t faded in 71 years’
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March 2, 2017 by Journal
Ejit Elementary School students march in Wednesday’s Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day parade in Majuro. Ejit is one of the homes in exile for Bikini islanders. Photo: Isaac Marty.
GIFF JOHNSON
“Grief, terror and righteous anger” has not faded for Marshall Islanders despite the passage of 71 years since the first nuclear weapons test at Bikini Atoll, President Hilda Heine told the Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day ceremony Wednesday in Majuro.
The event, that included a parade, ringing of a bell 71 times to mark the years since the first Bikini tests, and speeches, was held at the courtyard of the former RMI capital building in Majuro.
This year’s nuclear test commemoration did not end as usual with the morning program. A three-day “Nuclear Legacy Conference: Charting a Journey Toward Justice” kicked off Wednesday afternoon at the International Conference Center with a keynote address by Ambassador Tony deBrum, and presentations by Marshall Islanders and experts from the US and Japan who traveled to Majuro to attend the conference.
At Wednesday morning’s ceremony, President Heine said the US government had not been honest as to the “extent of radiation and the lingering effects the US Nuclear Weapons Testing Program would have on our lives, ocean and land.”
She pointed out that US government studies kept secret from the Marshall Islands during negotiations on a compensation agreement reached in the 1980s “have now shown that 18 other inhabited atolls or single islands were contaminated by three of the six nuclear bombs tested in Operation Castle, as well as by the Bravo shot in 1954. The myth of only four ‘exposed’ atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utrik, has shaped US nuclear policy on the Marshallese people since 1954, which limited medical and scientific follow up, and compensation programs.
“As your President, I cannot and will not accept the position of the United States government.”
Heine pointed out that Nitijela adopted into law the National Nuclear Commission to lead efforts for nuclear justice.
US Ambassador Karen Stewart honored islanders who suffered from nuclear testing and said “we will never forget Marshallese who sacrificed for global security.” Speaking about those who had already passed away, she said she was “encouraged by their and your courage for justice and your courage to build a better society.” Stewart said the US “will continue to be your partner…for a brighter future for the Marshall Islands.” She praised the aims of the three-day nuclear legacy conference, saying it was vital for the younger generation to learn about these issues.
Enewetak Senator Jack Ading, speaking on behalf of other nuclear-affected atolls, pointed out that few survivors of the 1940s evacuations and nuclear weapons tests are still alive. “For most of us, the paradise that God created is just a legend from our elders,” he said. “By the time most of us were born, our paradise was a paradise lost.”
Ading said the 67 weapons tests left a “toxic legacy” that will affect the Marshall Islands for generations.
A number of doctors, scientists and researchers from the United States and Japan are participating in the three-day Nuclear Legacy Conference that started Wednesday afternoon and is open to the public at the ICC.
Read more about this in the March 3, 2017 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.
Nuclear lawsuit testimony ends
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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) wrapped up oral arguments last Wednesday in the preliminary phase of the nuclear disarmament cases brought by the Marshall ...
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March 25, 2016 by Journal
Dutch attorney Phon van den Biesen, RMI UN Mission Chargé Deborah Barker-Manase, and Tony deBrum at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Monday. Photo: UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) wrapped up oral arguments last Wednesday in the preliminary phase of the nuclear disarmament cases brought by the Marshall Islands against India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.
The hearings, which took place at the ICJ from 7-16 March, were the first contentious cases on nuclear disarmament ever heard at the Court.
This set of hearings addressed the respondent nations’ objections to the cases relating to questions of jurisdiction and admissibility.
Tony deBrum, Co-Agent and former Foreign Minister of the RMI, recounted to the Court the Marshall Islands’ unique perspective about the effects of nuclear weapons due to 67 US nuclear weapons tests conducted in the Marshall Islands from 1946-58.
“Yesterday was a beautiful morning here in The Hague that featured a picture-perfect snowfall,” deBrum told the panel of ICJ judges. “As a tropical state, the Marshall Islands has experienced ‘snow’ on one memorable and devastating occasion, the 1954 Bravo test of a thermonuclear bomb that was one thousand times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb. When that explosion occurred, there were many people, including children, who were a far distance from the bomb, on our atolls which, according to leading scientists and assurances, were predicted to be entirely safe. In reality, within five hours of the explosion, it began to rain radioactive fallout at Rongelap. Within hours, the atoll was covered with a fine, white, powdered-like substance. No one knew it was radioactive fallout. The children thought it was snow. And the children played in the snow. And they ate it.”
The Marshall Islands was clear that while their history with nuclear testing gives context to their current actions for global nuclear disarmament, the cases at the ICJ relate specifically to nuclear-armed states’ breaches of Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and customary international law.
Read more about this in the March 25, 2016 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.
Nuclear lawsuits move forward
March 11, 2016 by Journal
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The Marshall Islands gained global headlines this week as the government’s cases against India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom were launched at the International ...
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Dutch attorney Phon van den Biesen, RMI UN Mission Chargé Deborah Barker-Manase, and Tony deBrum at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Monday. Photo: UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek.
The Marshall Islands gained global headlines this week as the government’s cases against India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom were launched at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In addition to Dutch attorney Phon van den Biesen representing the RMI government before the court, former Foreign Minister Tony deBrum spoke to the court, and RMI UN Mission Chargé Deborah Barker-Manase observed for the government.
“These unprecedented lawsuits were submitted by the RMI to the International Court of Justice on April 24, 2014,” said Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, which is supporting the suits. “They aim to hold the nine nuclear-armed states (US, Russia, UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea) accountable for violating international law by failing to respect their nuclear disarmament obligations under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and customary international law.”
The hearings this week and next are for the RMI, UK, India and Pakistan to present their arguments for and against the ICJ having jurisdiction to hear the RMI’s cases. The RMI is presenting its case this week, with India and UK’s responses expected next week. Pakistan is reportedly boycotting the court hearings. The ICJ must determine if it has jurisdiction to hear the RMI’s cases.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs dispatched Barker-Manase from New York to “observe the proceedings and feed back information to us,” said Foreign Minister John Silk Wednesday. Silk added that before this time, “no one knew what was happening (with the suits).”
He also said a legal opinion on the lawsuits has now been produced by the RMI Attorney General’s office, and Silk was planning to review the document with the Cabinet Wednesday afternoon this week.
In briefing papers filed with the ICJ, India questioned the basis of RMI’s claims against India, saying India has shown greater resolve in supporting negotiations to end nuclear weapons. “It is revealing that for ten years (2003-2012) prior to the RMI contemplating this recourse to the ICJ, while India consistently voted for and sponsored (a UN) resolution (calling for international negotiations to ultimately eliminate nuclear weapons), the RMI voted against the resolution or abstained nine times and voted in favor only once,” said India. “This shows not only the inconsistency of the RMI’s belief in multilateral negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament but also the artificiality of its claim in this case.”
“From a legal perspective, the issues presented by these cases are ordinary ones, but a positive outcome will, spectacularly, change the world,” said van den Biesen. “We are asking the Court to tell the respondent states to live up to their obligations under international law and to conduct negotiations leading to the required result: nuclear disarmament in all its aspects.”
Of the nine suits originally filed, only the cases against India, Pakistan and the UK are proceeding. This is because these are the only three countries that have “made a commitment to respond to suits brought at the ICJ.”
Read more about this in the March 11, 2016 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.
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