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$20 million: The clock is ticking

Phone:
(692) 625-8143
(692) 625-8146
Fax:
(692) 625-3136
Mail:
PO Box 14 Majuro, MH 96960 Marshall Islands
In Person:
On the ocean road behind Formosa in Uliga, Majuro
(Continued from the home page) The one new development on the Kwajalein front is a recent letter from Kwajalein alabs (clan heads) to the RMI government, saying in essence that if the RMI can get US agreement in writing to address several issues, they are prepared to “advise” Kwajalein iroij to work out a new LUA with the RMI government. But the issues identified by deBrum as needing action — full faith and credit provisions for overall Compact funding, power and water for the Marshallese community at Kwajalein and moving up previously agreed Kwajalein payments from 2014 to 2010 — are clearly deal breakers by US estimation. DeBrum, who represents Kwajalein in the Nitijela, acknowledged there has been no indication from the US government that it is willing to discuss issues in the military use and operating rights agreement (MUORA) in Compact II. But deBrum said the RMI has to be able to offer something to get the landowners on board. “The US says the LUA is between the landowners and the RMI government,” deBrum said. “But the RMI can’t offer what the US has already offered (and the landowners have rejected).” DeBrum said he will be traveling to Washington later this month to see what the US Congress can do regarding Kwajalein. “There’s too much emphasis on the (December 17) deadline,” he said. “The traditional leaders say if it can’t be done, then start talking about 2016 (the end of the current LUA allowing US presence at Kwajalein). But we think we can produce a result both sides are happy with. But not if the US just stonewalls and says ‘we have a deal.’ As far as the landowners are concerned, there is no deal.”
KBE Council debates how to choose new mayor
(Continued from the home page) On Tuesday, the KBE Council had more than the needed two-thirds vote to amend the constitution to allow the Council to choose the mayor to serve the rest of the four-year term. A second issue that has not yet been decided — and which reportedly precipitated the altercation Tuesday — is whether the Mayor must be chosen from among the Council or can be from the community. Once a decision is reached by the KBE Council on these amendments, they are to be forwarded to the AG and Internal Affairs for review. Approval by the national government will pave the way for a Mayor to be selected by the Council to finish the term. If these amendments are approved, there would be no need for a special election. Since Mayor Jibas’ car accident, which resulted in his death, Councilman Alson Kelen (pictured) has been Acting Mayor.
Journal 10/73
Journal 10/83
P1 “It is clear that the US refused at Hana to discuss ‘free association’ as the Congress of Micronesia has defined it.” These are the words of Representative Hans Williander, member of the Congress of Micronesia and spokesman for the Micronesian Independence Coalition. He made the statement in reaction to an article carried in the October 28, 1971 Honolulu Star-Bulletin. According to Williander, Senator
P1 The Marshalls Sun Corporation Hotel and Restaurant began operations this past week with a soft opening. The 35-unit one story hotel already has six occupants and the restaurant has been presenting an excellent quality Japanese-style fare prepared by chief cook Koichi Oashi and his assistant Shuichi Ishizawa.
P2 (Editorial) It’s high time someone does something about the newest menace on Majuro’s roads: the evening jogger. These self-important trotters are making a national pastime out of running along our poorly lit roads just after dark and are creating a traffic hazard, not only to themselves, but more importantly to drivers and passengers of vehicles who are legally using the roads as they were intended: for vehicle traffic. It is the crazies who stink-sweat their way along the unshouldered causeway just past PII and Tobolar who are the real danger: they are sure to cause an accident, given enough time and opportunity, and the likely victims will not be the runners who cause a vehicle to swerve unexpectedly, but probably some other oncoming vehicle and driver. We urge the police to stop these runners who feel it is safe to run along this unshouldered road: they can confine themselves to the large area of the old runway, or at least confine their anti-social activity to daylight hours. The causeway is bad enough as it is. We don’t need additional stupidity added to this already dangerous passage.
Clifford Case remarked that he had heard there were plans to store nuclear weapons removed from Okinawa on Babelthuap Island in Palau. “Ambassador Franklin Haydn Williams solemnly promised that usage of land for military purposes would be requested only on specified locations and for specified purposes,” Williander said. “In contradiction to this, Secretary of Defense David Packard is said to have remarked that the United States could place ‘forces or installations on any of the islands.”
P3 Tony deBrum, Director of the Marshalls Community Action Agency (MCAA) has resigned his post with effect December 5. “It’s just that I feel three years is enough,” deBrum said. As for his future plans, he says he has nothing definite in mind.
Journal 10/98
P1 Calling Kwajalein the “gem in the crown,” Lt. Genral John Costello predicted the importance of the Kwajalein missile range will grow in the
coming years as missile defense programs move to a more advanced level of testing. The commander of the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, Costello said in an interview with the Journal that Kwajalein is important today but will become “more significant in the future.”
P1 The Marshall Islands is not broke, Finance Minister Tony deBrum told Nitijela during the budget debate. This idea has been perpetuated by the Asian Development Bank, which has been telling the country that the Compact ends in 2001 so there won’t be any money and cutbacks are necessary, he said. He called it a serious misinterpretation of the situation.
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