UNITED NATIONS - Fifty years after a string of U.S. nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, the western Pacific republic's people are still suffering lingering health problems, President Kessai Note said this week.
"We urge the United States government to fully address the issue of adequate compensation for populations affected by the nuclear testing program, and to fulfill its responsibilities for the safe resettlement of displaced populations," Note told the U.N. General Assembly.
The islands, a grouping of 31 atolls, were occupied by Allied forces in 1944, included in the U.N. Trust Territory of the Pacific in 1947 and placed under U.S. administration that same year. They became an independent republic in 1986.
Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 23 atomic and hydrogen bombs on Bikini and Enewetak atolls.
One of the blasts, which took place in 1954 and was dubbed Bravo, "was 1,000 times more powerful than Hiroshima and its fallout spread radioactive debris across the neighboring islands," Note said.
"Today, many of our people continue to suffer from long-term health effects while others remain displaced from their homes because of ongoing contamination," he said.
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