Epic nuclear case: Island nation takes on India, Pak, Britain

October 5, 2016

Majuro/Marshall Islands, Oct 5: As the Marshall Islands awaits an international court ruling on Wednesday on whether its lawsuit against three nuclear powers can proceed, many in the western Pacific nation question the merit of the David-versus-Goliath legal battle.

hydrogenThe country of 55,000 people is taking on India, Pakistan and Britain in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), arguing they have failed to comply with the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Initially the lawsuit was even more ambitious — also including China, France, Israel, North Korea, Russia and the United States — none of which recognised the ICJ's jurisdiction on the matter.

The Marshalls has a long, bitter history with nuclear weapons, making it one of the few nations that can argue with credibility before the ICJ about their impact.

The island nation was ground zero for 67 American nuclear weapons tests from 1946-58 at Bikini and Enewetak atolls, when it was under US administration.

The tests included the 1954 "Bravo" hydrogen bomb, the most powerful ever detonated by the United States, about 1,000 times bigger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

They fed into an apocalyptic zeitgeist in Cold War popular culture, giving a name to the bikini swimsuit and leading to the development of Japan's Godzilla movie monster.

In "Godzilla", the creature is awakened by a hydrogen bomb test, rising from a roiling sea to destroy Tokyo, in a walking, radiation-breathing analogy for nuclear disaster.

'Sky turned blood red'

On the Marshall Islands, the impacts of the nuclear tests were all too real.

Numerous islanders were forcibly evacuated from ancestral lands and resettled, while thousands more were exposed to radioactive fallout.

"Several islands in my country were vaporised and others are estimated to remain uninhabitable for thousands of years," Tony deBrum, a former Marshall Islands foreign minister, told an ICJ hearing earlier this year.

He recalled witnessing the Bravo test as a nine-year-old while fishing with his grandfather in an atoll, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the blast's epicentre.

"The entire sky turned blood red," he said. "Many died, or suffered birth defects never before seen and cancers as a result of contamination."

DeBrum launched the Marshall's ICJ action in 2014 with cooperation from the California-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

His actions prompted the International Peace Bureau to nominate him in January for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, which is yet to be awarded.

Yet critics argue the ICJ action is a distraction and the islanders' real fight is with Washington, which carried out the tests in their backyard.

They contend the case has no relationship to victims' claims for increased compensation, better health care and clean-ups to make sites habitable again.

Official criticism has been muted recently to avoid undermining deBrum's Nobel nomination.

But his successor as foreign minister, John Silk, made his views clear before an election last November when voters ousted 40 percent of the parliament, including deBrum.

Labelling the action "unauthorised" and "a publicity stunt", he said the focus should remain on petitioning the US Congress for increased compensation.

"What do these lawsuits have to do with resolving the legacy of the US nuclear testing programme?" he asked.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation argues that the Marshalls is taking a broader perspective in trying to re-start nuclear disarmament talks that have stalled over the past 20 years.

"The Republic of the Marshall Islands acts for the seven billion of us who live on this planet to end the nuclear weapons threat hanging over all humanity," its website says.

"Everyone has a stake in this."

The ICJ, the UN's top court, will decide on Wednesday whether it believes the case should go to a full hearing.

Comments

Ashwin
 - 
Wednesday, 5 Oct 2016

Haha. CD u are very slow. The UN Court has already rejected nuclear case against India. But you are very quick to post something about BJP

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Agencies
January 7,2020

Tehran, Jan 7: The Iranian Parliament on Tuesday ratified a motion dubbed as "harsh revenge", that considers all members of the US Pentagon and those responsible for the death of Major General Qasem Soleimani as "terrorist forces".

The triple-urgency motion is a modification of a previously ratified bill on April 23, 2019, that designated the US Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist organization in retaliation to the same designation imposed on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by Washington, the Tehran-based Mehr News Agency said in a report.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said in Tuesday's open session that in the previous anti-US law, CENTCOM was designated as a terrorist entity.

"Today, following the cruel US measure in assassinating General Soleimani, the responsibility of which was accepted by the US President, we modify the previous law and announce that all members of Pentagon, commanders, agents and those responsible for the martyrdom of Gen Soleimani will be considered as terrorist forces," Larijani was quoted as saying in the report.

All of Iran nation supports the resistance, he added.

The modified law also allows withdrawal of $223 million to the IRGC's Quds Force from the National Development Fund of Iran for the next two months, added Larijani.

He said that the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's permission to withdraw the fund has been obtained, the Mehr report added.

Following its ratification, MPs chanted anti-US slogans at the Parliament.

Soleimani and his son-in-law and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Front (PMF), along with eight other people were killed in the January 3 drone attack ordered by US President Donald Trump.

Soleimani, 63, was the elite Quds Force chief in charge of IRGC operations outside Iran, and has been on the ground in Syria and Iraq supervising militias backed by Tehran.

The Quds Force holds sway over a large number of militias across the region ranging from Lebanon to Syria and Iraq.

The attack has led to widespread condemnation in Iran. Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani has vowed revenge on the US.

On Sunday, Iranian MP Abolfazl Aboutorabi threatened to attack the heart of American politics.

During an open session of the Iranian Parliament on Sunday afternoon, President Trump was called a "terrorist in a suit" after he threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites hard if Tehran attacks Americans or US assets.

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News Network
July 24,2020

Kathmandu, Jul 24: At least 132 people lost their lives as a result of heavy rains triggering landslides, and flash floods in Nepal.

"132 people dead, 128 injured, 53 missing and 998 families affected due to rainfall, landslides and floods in the country as of 23rd July," Nepal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority Within the last two weeks, the Myagdi district of western Nepal was the worst affected with 27 reported deaths.

Search and rescue operations are being conducted continuously with officials and police personnel who are looking through the debris to find missing people.

Monsoon-induced disasters are common in Nepal owing to the country's mountainous topography. Hundreds have been displaced as landslides have swept away their homes. They ended up taking refuge in local schools and community centers.

Nepal's Meteorological Forecasting Division earlier last week had predicted heavy downpour across the country. The Division had warned of monsoon winds being near the low-pressure line in the Terai belt, which would consequently cause more rainfall.

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News Network
June 10,2020

Jun 10: Indian-origin California Senator Kamala Harris has joined former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to raise USD 3.5 million for the upcoming November elections.

Tuesday's fundraiser is the second-largest single event haul so far for the Biden campaign, which raised USD 4 million at one event earlier this month.

Harris' presence during the virtual mega fund raiser assumes significance as the Democratic Party leaders consider her to be one of the front-runners to be the nominee for vice president. The 55-year-old lawyer-politician was once considered to be a strong opponent of Biden in the 2020 Democratic primaries.

Introducing Harris to the 1,400 supporters present at the event, Biden underlined the history-breaking nature of her past electoral wins.

"For much of her career, she was the only person in the room who looked like she did," he said.

At the start of the campaign last year, Harris was very critical of Biden. She later endorsed him, months after she decided to withdraw herself from the race to the White House.

During the fundraiser, Harris was effusive in her praise for Biden.

Referring to Biden's meeting with George Floyd's family, she said, "He (Biden)is someone who whether one on one or speaking to the nation always has a sense of how people are experiencing this world, and what their needs are...This moment in the history of our country really represents an extraordinary exercise in contrast."

"On the other hand, we have a Donald Trump who had the gall to dispatch the US military to clear the streets so that he could prance down and then, like a prop, hold up the bible for a photo op," Harris said.

The death of African-American Floyd during police confinement in Minneapolis on May 25 has resulted in widespread protests not only in the US but across the world.

"There are so many contrasts between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that really point to the choice that we as Americans have today," Harris said.

California Lt Governor Eleni Kounalakis also joined the fund raiser.

In his remarks, Biden, 77, said the US is reeling in anguish and anger over the brutal killing of Floyd or the systemic racism that still infects every part of the society. "Harris knows better than anybody," he said.

"At the same time, we're facing the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. American history is not a fairy tale with a guaranteed ending, a happy ending. This is a battle for the soul of the country.

"It's been a constant tug of war between the American ideal that we all are created equal -- and the harsh reality that racism has long torn us apart...I'm going to ask every American to look where we are now and to think, is this who we are? Is this who we want to be?" Biden asked.

Participating in the questions and answers session, Harris said America has still not fully embraced, acknowledged or addressed its history of racism and its current history of racism.

"One can think of this moment as an inflection moment, and it will require bold action and it will require immediate action...This stresses the importance and the immediacy and the urgency of electing Joe Biden," she said.

Replying to a question, Biden said, "Did you see today where the President of the United States while George Floyd was being buried, was condemning the older man who was knocked down with his head bleeding and everyone walking by. Did you see that? I mean, my lord. What have we become if we abide by this? So much we can do and must do."

Harris said the election is going to be rough and tumble.

"There are very powerful forces that thrive off of the hate and division that Donald Trump has been sowing. This is not going to be easy. And we have about just a few months to get this thing done," she said.

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