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The United States Department of the Interior has given give Bikini islanders displaced by US nuclear weapons tests complete control of a multi-million dollar trust fund.
This has sparked a leading US Senator to intervene to reverse the decision, and prompted concern at home.
Until now, Federal officials and leaders of the Bikini Council met each year to agree on a withdrawal, usually six to seven million US dollars.
The Council then decided how to spend it, subject to a Department of the Interior veto.
Last August, the Bikini Council asked the Department of the Interior to transfer full control of the Trust Fund to them.
The Department of the Interior agreed and turned over control on November 21st.
As soon as the decision took effect, US$11 million was withdrawn from the US$59 million fund.
Now Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska plans legislation to restore federal supervision.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Murkowski rebuked the Department of the Interior for the unilateral decision to wash its hands of trust fund management.
Murkowski chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee which exercises oversight on United States policy and funding for the Marshall Islands.
She objected to the fact that the sum of money withdrawn this year is almost double the amount usually agreed on.
And there was no agreement on how it would be spent.
Murkowski has drafted legislation to impose what she described as a reasonable limit on annual withdrawals.
Bikini Mayor Anderson Jilas told the Marshall Islands Journal: “We are free to determine our own destiny and every Bikinian should be proud of this new era.”
But former mayor Alsen Kelen expressed concern about the US$11 million withdrawal: “The money belongs to every Bikinian alive, not just to council members,” he told the Marshall Islands Journal.
Source
- RNZ
- Hawai’i Public Radio
- Image: i imgur
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News category: Asia Pacific.
