Bikini islanders were Wednesday awarded 563 million US dollars in compensation for the damage they suffered from American nuclear testing, but they seem unlikely to get the cash.
The order was made by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal which was set up by the United States with just 45 million dollars as part of an overall compensation package for the Marshallese who endured 67 US nuclear atmospheric tests, including 23 on Bikini itself, in the 1940s and 1950s.
The tribunal made the award based on the cost of clean-up, loss of use of the islands and hardships suffered since the islanders were forced to resettle on Kili Island by the US navy in 1946.
It said in its decision that nothing can compensate the Bikini people for the "damage, loss and hardship suffered".
But it added that it hoped the 563 million dollars award "will help bring closure to this tragic legacy, and allow the Bikini community to move forward empowered to make their own future."
The tribunal, however, has no funds to pay the award, having virtually exhausted its 45 million dollar compensation fund on personal injury claims.
The Marshall Islands government has been lobbying Washington to increase the tribunals funding.
Chaired by Oscar deBrum, and American judges Gregory Danz and James Plasman, the tribunal heard evidence from New Zealand anthropologist Nancy Pollock for the US.
She attempted to minimize the hardship the islanders experienced, saying that "the Bikini people were used to times of hunger and food shortage".
Pollock said that after their relocation "on the whole the food supply was quantitatively greater than it had been on Bikini".
Bikini attorney Jonathan Weisgall though established in cross-examination that Pollock had never been to Bikini, had spent only one day at Kili and had not interviewed Bikini elders in connection with her report.
One elder, Hosea Kerong, said he never remembered being hungry on Bikini, in marked contrast to Kili where food shortages were frequent until the early 1980s.
The compensation ruling allows 278 million dollars for past and future loss of use of Bikini Atoll, 251.5 million dollars for nuclear cleanup and restoration costs and 33.8 million dollars for hardships suffered -- MAJURO (AFP)
