Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Tag: Tony de Brum

  • The Man Who Stood Up to Armageddon

    This article was originally published by Common Wonders.

    Suddenly it’s possible — indeed, all too easy — to imagine one man starting a nuclear war. What’s a little harder to imagine is one human being stopping such a war.

    For all time.

    Tony de BrumThe person who came closest to this may have been Tony de Brum, former foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, who died last week of cancer at age 72.

    He grew up in the South Pacific island chain when it was under “administrative control” of the U.S. government, which meant it was a waste zone absolutely without political or social significance (from the American point of view), and therefore a perfect spot to test nuclear weapons. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 such tests — the equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima blasts every day for 12 years — and for much of the time thereafter ignored and/or lied about the consequences.

    As a boy, de Brum was unavoidably a witness to some of these tests, including the one known as Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton blast conducted on Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954. He and his family lived about 200 miles away, on Likiep Atoll. He was nine years old.

    He later described it thus: “No sound, just a flash and then a force, the shock wave . . . as if you were under a glass bowl and someone poured blood over it. Everything turned red: sky, the ocean, the fish, my grandfather’s net.

    “People in Rongelap nowadays claim they saw the sun rising from the West. I saw the sun rising from the middle of the sky. . . . We lived in thatch houses at that time, my grandfather and I had our own thatch house and every gecko and animal that lived in the thatch fell dead not more than a couple of days after. The military came in, sent boats ashore to run us through Geiger counters and other stuff; everybody in the village was required to go through that.”

    The Rongelap Atoll was inundated with radioactive fallout from Castle Bravo and rendered uninhabitable. “The Marshall Islands’ close encounter with the bomb did not end with the detonations themselves,” de Brum said more than half a century later, in his 2012 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award acceptance speech. “In recent years, documents released by the United States government have uncovered even more horrific aspects of this burden borne by the Marshallese people in the name of international peace and security.”

    These included the natives’ deliberately premature resettlement on contaminated islands and the cold-blooded observation of their reaction to nuclear radiation, not to mention U.S. denial and avoidance, for as long as possible, of any responsibility for what it did.

    In 2014, Foreign Minister de Brum was the driving force behind something extraordinary. The Marshall Islands, which had gained independence in 1986, filed a lawsuit, both in in the International Court of Justice and U.S. federal court, against the nine nations that possess nuclear weapons, demanding that they start living up to the terms of Article VI of the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which includes these words:

    “Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”

    Right now, Planet Earth could not be more divided on this matter. Some of the world’s nine nuclear powers, including the United States, have signed this treaty, and others have not, or have withdrawn from it (e.g., North Korea), but none of them has the slightest interest in recognizing it or pursuing nuclear disarmament. For instance, all of them, plus their allies, boycotted a recent U.N. debate that led to the passage of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which calls for immediate nuclear disarmament. One hundred twenty-two nations — most of the world — voted for it. But the nuke nations couldn’t even endure the discussion.

    This is the world de Brum and the Marshall Islands stood up to in 2014 — aligned with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, an NGO that provided legal help to pursue the lawsuit, but otherwise alone in the world, without international support.

    “Absent the courage of Tony, the lawsuits would not have happened,” David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, told me. “Tony was unequaled in being willing to challenge nuclear weapon states for their failure to fulfill their legal obligations.”

    And no, the lawsuits didn’t succeed. They were dismissed, eventually, on something other than their actual merits. The U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals, for instance, eventually declared that Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty was “non-self-executing and therefore not judicially enforceable,” which sounds like legal jargon for: “Sorry, folks, as far as we know, nukes are above the law.”

    But as Krieger noted, referring to the recent U.N. vote calling for nuclear disarmament, de Brum’s unprecedented audacity — pushing the U.S. and international court systems to hold the nuclear-armed nations of the world accountable — may have served as “a role model for courage. There might have been other countries in the U.N. who saw the courage he exhibited and decided it was time to stand up.”

    We do not yet have nuclear disarmament, but because of Tony de Brum, an international movement for this is gaining political traction.

    Perhaps he stands as a symbol of the anti-Trump: a sane and courageous human being who has seen the sky turn red and felt the shockwaves of Armageddon, and who has spent a lifetime trying to force the world’s most powerful nations to reverse the course of mutually assured destruction.

  • The World Loses a Hero in Tony de Brum, Former Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands and Staunch Nuclear Weapons Abolitionist

    Tony de BrumTony de Brum, former Foreign Minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), passed away on August 22, 2017. He was a powerful and inspiring voice for the abolition of nuclear weapons as well as climate sanity. He was a visionary leader, respected and admired throughout the world for his strength, wisdom, warmth and unceasing optimism.

    Born in 1945, de Brum was one of the first Marshall Islanders to graduate from college. He played a key role in the negotiations that led to the first compact of free association between the U.S. and the RMI, and participated in the development of the Constitution of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

    Between the years 1946 and 1958, the U.S. used the Marshall Islands as a nuclear testing ground, detonating 67 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons in the atmosphere and under the waters of this small island nation. Tony de Brum was a “nuclear witness” to many of them.

    As a nine-year-old boy living on Likiep Atoll at the time of the Castle Bravo nuclear test – an explosion 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, de Brum remembered, “Bravo went off with a very bright flash, almost a blinding flash; bear in mind we were almost 200 miles away from ground zero. No sound, just a flash and then a force, the shock wave – as if you were under a glass bowl and someone poured blood over it. Everything turned red: sky, the ocean, the fish, my grandfather’s net. People in Rongelap claim they saw the sun rising from the West.”

    De Brum worked selflessly throughout his life for the people of the Marshall Islands. Eventually, his vision and efforts for peace, justice and a world without nuclear weapons extended to people everywhere.

    “Tony and I first met at the University of Hawaii in the mid 1960s. We reconnected later when Tony was an official of the RMI and we were both working to abolish nuclear weapons,” said David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF). “I was impressed by his commitment to go beyond his island nation and play a leadership role in ending the nuclear weapons era.”

    In 2012, NAPF honored de Brum with its Distinguished Peace Leadership Award for his exceptional efforts on behalf of the Marshall Islands victims of nuclear testing. De Brum accepted the award in Santa Barbara at the Foundation’s annual Evening For Peace. This led to further collaboration with de Brum and brainstorming about what meaningful steps could be taken to awaken the world to the need for nuclear abolition.

    In 2014, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, led by Minister de Brum, filed the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits in the International Court of Justice, landmark cases against the nine nuclear-armed nations “for failing to comply with their obligations under international law to pursue negotiations in good faith for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.” NAPF was a consultant to the RMI on the cases, working side by side with de Brum and a pro bono legal team for more than four years. Krieger noted, “Tony demonstrated courage and integrity in his willingness to hold the nine nuclear-armed nations to account in fulfilling their legal obligations to rid the world of nuclear weapons. These lawsuits would never have occurred without the courage of Tony de Brum.”

    In 2015, De Brum and the people of the Marshall Islands received the Right Livelihood Award “in recognition of their vision and courage to prosecute nuclear powers that do not respect their disarmament obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.” De Brum and the Marshall Islanders were voted “2016 Arms Control Persons of the Year” by the Arms Control Association. Lastly, Minister de Brum and the Marshall Islanders were nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

    De Brum was also well known in international circles for his strong advocacy for curtailing climate change, which disproportionally affects small island states like the RMI. He spoke on these issues at the United Nations and was the keynote speaker for the Seventh Regional Conference on Island Sustainability last year in Guam.

    Throughout his life, Tony de Brum never wavered from his commitment to abolish the weapons that damaged his country and its people, and continues to threaten all of humanity. He showed the world that even a leader from a tiny island nation, with vision and persistence, could have significant global impact.

    Tony de Brum was a warrior for peace, disciplined and committed to overcoming all obstacles on the path to a better world. He will be sorely missed, but his words will continue to inspire: “We will never give up. We have a voice that will not be silenced until the world is rid of all nuclear weapons.”

    # # #

    To read Tony de Brum’s acceptance speech from the 2012 Evening For Peace, click here.
    To arrange an interview with David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, please contact Sandy Jones at sjones@napf.org or (805) 965-3443.

    About the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation:
    Founded in 1982, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s mission is to educate and advocate for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons and to empower peace leaders. The Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with consultative status to the United Nations and is comprised of individuals and groups worldwide who realize the imperative for peace in the Nuclear Age. For more information, visit www.wagingpeace.org

  • Commending the Honorable Tony A. De Brum of the Republic of the Marshall Islands

    COMMENDING THE HONORABLE TONY A. DEBRUM OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS

    HON. ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA OF AMERICAN SAMOA

    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

    Tuesday, June 17, 2014

    Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend my good friend, the Honorable Tony A. de Brum, who has served the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) with distinction and honor as Senator, Minister in Assistance to the President (Vice-President), Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Health and Environment, and in other notable capacities.

    Senator Tony de Brum was born in 1945 and grew up on Likiep atoll at the height of the U.S. nuclear testing program in the RMI. From 1946–1958, the U.S. exploded 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands and, in 1954, detonated the Bravo shot on Bikini atoll. Acknowledged as the greatest nuclear explosion ever detonated, the Bravo shot vaporized 6 islands and created a mushroom cloud 25 miles in diameter.

    In his own words, the Honorable Tony de Brum, states:

    I am a nuclear witness and my memories from Likiep atoll in the northern Marshalls are strong. I lived there as a young boy for the entire 12 years of the nuclear testing program, and when I was 9 years old, I remember vividly the white flash of the Bravo detonation on Bikini atoll, 6 decades ago in 1954, and one thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima—an event that truly shocked the international community into action.

    It was in the morning, and my grandfather and I were out fishing. He was throwing net and I was carrying a basket behind him when Bravo went off. Unlike previous ones, Bravo went off with a very bright flash, almost a blinding flash; bear in mind we are almost 200 miles away from ground zero. No sound, just a flash and then a force, the shock wave. I like to describe it as if you are under a glass bowl and someone poured blood over it. Everything turned red: sky, the ocean, the fish, and my grandfather’s net.

    People in Rongelap nowadays claim they saw the sun rising from the West. I saw the sun rising from the middle of the sky, I mean I don’t even know what direction it came from but it just covered it, it was really scary. We lived in thatch houses at that time, my grandfather and I had our own thatch house and every gecko and animal that lived in the thatch fell dead not more than a couple of days after. The military came in, sent boats ashore to run us through Geiger counters and other stuff; everybody in the village was required to go through that.

    Shaped by what he witnessed, Tony de Brum determined to become an activist.

    I think that’s the point that my brain was taught that. I did not consciously say at the time, I am going to now be a crusader. Just a few weeks after that, my grandfather and I went to Kwajalein, where they had evacuated the people of Rongelap, where they were staying in big large green tents being treated for their nuclear burns and exposure. All the while, incidentally, the United States government was announcing that everything was OK, that there was nothing to be worried about.

    Unconvinced, Tony de Brum not only became one of the first Marshall Islanders to graduate from college but he worked for 17 years to negotiate his country’s independence from the United States. As an eyewitness to nuclear explosions, he also became one of the world’s leading advocates for nuclear disarmament calling upon the parties to the NonProliferation Treaty (NPT) to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and pursue the peace and security of a world without them. In 2012, Tony deBrum was awarded the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Distinguished Peace Leadership Award. Previous recipients include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, King Hussein of Jordan, and Jacques Cousteau.

    In April 2014, the Republic of the Marshall Islands filed the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits—unprecedented lawsuits against all nine countries that possess nuclear weapons for their failure to negotiate in good faith for nuclear disarmament as required by the NPT. The landmark cases signed by RMI Foreign Minister Tony deBrum are now pending before the International Court of Justice in The Hague and the U.S. Federal District Court in San Francisco. As a Pacific Islander and as the Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, I applaud the RMI and especially Tony deBrum for taking a stand against the nuclear weapon giants. ‘‘No nation should ever suffer as we have,’’ Foreign Minister Tony de Brum has stated, and I agree.

    I also agree that we should spur greater commitments in international climate change negotiations, and I commend Foreign Minister Tony de Brum for galvanizing more urgent and concrete action on climate change. As an architect of the Majuro Declaration for Climate Leadership, Foreign Minister Tony deBrum has been unrelenting in vocalizing his concerns. In 2013, he addressed the United Nations Security Council on the threat posed by climate change to the long-term viability and survival of the Marshall Islands. During climate talks at the United Nations, he stated that ‘‘we are not just trying to save our islands, we are trying to save the entire world.’’

    I declare my sincere and heartfelt commitment to a nuclear-free world and a world committed to putting climate at the top of its diplomatic agenda. In so doing, I honor Tony de Brum as a leader, activist, friend and brother by placing his name and work in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD for historical purposes.

  • 2012 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award Acceptance Speech

    Tony de BrumIt is with profound gratitude and humility that I receive this coveted Distinguished Peace Leadership Award 2012. I wish to thank Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for the great honor.

    I am aware that in receiving this award, I am following in the footsteps of some of the most gallant and respected notables of our century – among them, His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan, Jacques Cousteau, Walter Cronkite and many other distinguished champions of peace.

    I am truly humbled to be following the lead of such exceptional human beings. With their contributions to world peace and harmony they have touched and influenced many of us gathered this evening and impacted the lives of many more around the world.

    My life was deeply traumatized by the nuclear legacy of the United States in the Marshall Islands.  My public career has been shaped by the nuclear insult to my country and the Marshallese people. I have endeavored to make my modest contribution to peace by bringing their story to the world through all opportunities available to me.

    Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

    I have been a student of the horrific impacts of the nuclear weapons testing program for most of my life. I served as interpreter for American officials who proclaimed Bikini safe for resettlement and commenced a program to repatriate the Bikini people who for decades barely survived on the secluded island of Kili. I accompanied the American High Commissioner of the Trust Territory just two years later to once again remove the repatriated residents from Bikini because concentrations of strontium and cesium had exceeded safe limits and their exposure had become too high for the established US government’s health standards.

    I was also personally involved in the translation of the Enewetak Environmental Impact Statement that declared Enewetak in the western Marshall Islands safe for resettlement.  In a television interview on CBS Sixty Minutes I expressed my concern to Morley Safer at the time by describing the military public relations efforts associated with the Enewetak clean-up as a dog-and-pony show.  Today, for the most part the atoll remains unsafe for human habitation.

    Later, during negotiations to terminate the trust territory arrangement mandated by the United Nations and assigned to the United States, we discovered that certain scientific information regarding Enewetak was being withheld from us because, as the official US government memorandum stated, “the Marshallese negotiators might make overreaching demands” on the United States if the facts about the extent of damage in the islands were known to us.

    Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

    The Marshall Islands’ close encounter with the bomb did not end with the detonations themselves. In recent years, documents released by the United States government have uncovered even more horrific aspects of this burden borne by the Marshallese people in the name of international peace and security. US government documents prove in no uncertain terms that its scientists conducted human radiation experiments on Marshallese citizens and American servicemen assigned to our part of the world. Some of our people were injected with or coerced to imbibe fluids laced with radioactive substances. Other experimentation involved the purposeful and premature resettlement of people on islands highly contaminated by the weapons tests to study how human beings absorb radionuclides either from their foods or from their poisonous environment.

    Much of this human experimentation occurred in populations either exposed to near lethal amounts of radiation, or to “control” populations who were told they would receive medical “ care” for participating in these studies to help their fellow citizens. At the conclusion of all these studies, the United States still maintained that no positive linkage could be established between the tests and the health status of the Marshallese. Just in the past few years, a National Cancers Institute study has predicted a substantively higher than expected incidence of cancer in the Marshall Islands resulting from the atomic tests.

    Throughout the years, America’s nuclear history in the Marshall Islands has been colored with official denial, self-serving control of information, and abrogation of commitment to redress the shameful wrongs done to the Marshallese people. The scientists and military officials involved in the testing program picked and chose their study subjects, recognized certain communities as exposed when it served their interests, and denied monitoring and medicinal attention to subgroups within the Marshall Islands.

    I remember well their visits to my village in Likiep where they subjected every one of us to tests and invasive physical examinations the United States government denied ever carrying out. In 1978 as a representative on the negotiations with the United States, we raised the issue requesting that raw data gathered during these visits be made available to us. United States representatives responded by saying that our recollections were juvenile and could not possibly reflect the realities of the time.

    Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

    While a resolution of the status question was eventually reached, the issue of damages and personal injury from the testing remain a matter of contention between our two countries to this day.  The unresolved aspect of the agreement remains the question of damages and personal injury claims yet to be addressed.  Attempts to resolve these outstanding issues through the Compact of Free Association between our two countries as well as through the United States court system have been unsuccessful.

    The courts have invoked the statutes of limitation while the administration contends that the circumstances of the claims do not constitute provable differences from knowledge based on which the agreements in 1986 were reached.  We do not deny signing an agreement. We do admit though that this was based on information provided us by the United States contending that the damages were as they described in various studies presented to us to justify the adequacy of nuclear compensation and purported to describe in full the true damages caused by the tests.

    In order to break this impasse we would require evidence which has been declared top secret by the United States to which the public has no access.  It is interesting to note that the United States has expressed strong interest to bring the nuclear issues with the Marshall Islands to closure.  We have responded that there can be no closure without full disclosure.

    Further the United States Government tells us, our government is now responsible for nuclear claims, stemming from what is called the espousal provision of the Compact of Free Association. That basically says, we have settled all claims and should any new ones arise, the Government of the Marshall Islands will be responsible and liable. Ironically, the only other time in the history of the United States where ‘espousal’ was used to squelch claims was in the settlement to release the hostages in Iran.

    Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

    Last month in Geneva, the 21st Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted the Independent Special Rapporteur’s report, which in short, found that the US nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands resulted in both immediate and continuing effects on the human rights of the Marshallese.  The adopted report also sets forth a set of far reaching recommendations, among them, under subparagraph (f); “Guarantee the right to effective remedy for the Marshallese people, including by providing full funding for the Nuclear Claims Tribunal to award adequate compensation for past and future claims, and exploring other forms of reparation, where appropriate, such as restitution, rehabilitation and measures of satisfaction; including, public apologies, public memorials and guarantees of non- repetition; and consider the establishment of a truth and reconciliation mechanism or similar alternative justice mechanisms.”

    How far the United States government will act on these recommendations remains uncertain.  In spite of all that has occurred in this relationship, the American people will not find a better friend than the people of the Marshall Islands.

    Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

    I accept this high honor you bestow upon me this evening in the name of my country, my fellow citizens, and all who have in one way or another contributed to the understanding of the Marshallese nuclear plight.

    I accept it on behalf of Lijon Aknelang and the Almira Matayoshi of Rongelap Atoll, who passed away recently but were never discouraged in their fight to find peace and justice. I dedicate it to the mothers of Rongelap whose shameful treatment by American scientists violated all acceptable norms of human decency and respect.  I accept it on behalf of Senator Jeton Anjain and his brother Mayor John Anjain, who exposed the dark secrets of the experimentation on the Rongelap people.  This honor I share with Mayor Anjain’s son, Lekoj Anjain who became the first recognized leukemia victim of nuclear tests. I accept this honor on behalf of the Marshallese Traditional Leaders, especially Iroijlaplap Jebro Kabua and Anjua Loeak, who made lands under their stewardship available for the humane resettlement of displace nuclear nomads.  I accept it on behalf of Marshallese community leaders who petitioned in vain to stop the tests through avenues known to them, both directly to the United States and to the United Nations. I accept on behalf of Senator Ishmael John of Enewetak who fought to his death to bring justice to the people of his home who to this day remain unable to resettle their ancestral lands and whose atoll continues to store nuclear wastes including plutonium.

    I would be remiss if I did not include the many friends throughout the world who have contributed to our knowledge of the dangers of nuclear weapons and the clear and present danger they are to the universe as we know it. I accept it on behalf of all Marshallese whose lives have been directly or indirectly affected by the horrific effects of the nuclear test.  But most of all, dear friends, I accept on behalf of my granddaughter Zoe, who, as a brave young four year old, battled with leukemia for two very difficult years, and is now declared healthy enough to return to school and live a normal life.  For this I will always be thankful to God and His Mercy.

    Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

    For the use of our country in the maintenance of what is called an unquestionable military supremacy over the world, Kwajalein Atoll, which is my parliamentary constituency, has been tasked to bear the burden.  I therefore dedicate this honor to the people of Kwajalein whose continuing sacrifice of providing the home of their forefathers for the “preservation of international peace and security” continues to this day and for the next seventy-four years.

    The Marshall Islands are by no means the only ones who have experienced a taste of nuclear horror.  The people of Hiroshima and Nakasaki, Kazakhstan, Chernobyl, Fukushima, and French Polynesia have had first-hand experience.  The 67 nuclear events in the Marshalls, equivalent to 1.7 Hiroshima shots every day for 12 years came complete with physical displacement, nuclear illness, birth anomalies, alienation of land, massive destruction of property, injury and death.  But perhaps the most hurtful of all was official denial and secretive cover up and refusal to accept responsibility on the part of the perpetrators.

    The Marshall Islands were also subject to years of expensive clean up and rehabilitation of land and habitat which fell far short of restoring the lands and sites to any productive use.  In certain parts, repatriation will not be possible for at least 12,000 years. And that’s only from testing.

    Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned is that any way you look at it, nuclear weapons and the horrific destruction they bring, whether in war or in experimentation, leave permanent and irreversible damage to man and nature. All things surrounding nuclear weaponry threaten life on our planet and perhaps even our universe. It is not good for men and women, boys and girls, and dogs and cats.  It is harmful to trees and to plants we eat.  It poisons fish and wildlife.  It makes our world less, not more, secure.

    If the lessons of the end of World War II, and the lessons of all the tests conducted since then have not been learned then we must learn them.  If the experiences of laboratory exposure, also denied, are not part of our learning pathway, then they must be added.  If we do not take the message of nuclear survivors to heart, then we will have to soften our hearts.  Nuclear weapons threaten us, they do not protect us.  No matter where they are located or deployed, one push of a red button could be the end of life as we know it.  That is not a chance worth taking.

    If we continue to imagine any kind of a benefit being derived from the fact that the atomic powers are now armed to the teeth, then the sacrifice of all we have cited in this brief message tonight will have been in vain.  Enlightened modern leaders of the world have not been blind to this fact of life.  It is just that they have yet to put the matter of the nuclear race to rest.

    Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

    Barely forty-eight hours ago we were in India at the 11th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity where 193 countries, both governments and non-government organizations, met to discuss the accelerated decline in the integrity of the environment and its genetic resources. Also debated were programs and efforts to address the unsustainable global development direction and the dangers that it poses to the world.

    As in nuclear disarmament efforts, we have a situation where world leaders fully understand the problem, are aware of the solutions, but cannot decide who should go first.  There is no question that if civilization does not keep global warming under 2 degrees C by 2050, this effort to protect mother earth will be in vain.  I am confident that the entire membership of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is familiar with the issue and knows what must be done to avoid climate chaos.  But like nuclear disarmament, the world know the problem, it knows the solutions, but lacks the collective political will to execute.

    As a small islands developing state, the Marshall Islands, and its neighbors are among the most ecologically vulnerable areas on the planet. We are actively working with other Pacific Islands to ensure that ocean resources in the region are governed and protected from exploitation. As a nation whose single most important productive sector and key export is in fisheries, the state of the world’s oceans and fish stocks and how these vital resources are being exploited remains on the list of our immediate priorities.

    Recently, the Marshall Islands, in partnership with Palau and Micronesia, has undertaken a feasibility study for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion or OTEC technology, which uses the deep ocean temperature differential to generate electricity, water and other marketable by-products.  If successful, OTEC will turn the Marshall Islands and its neighbors from oil-dependent basket case economies into net exporters of renewable energy.  On this score we salute the enlightened efforts on sustainable energy in which our friends in California have been admirably proactive.

    The Marshall Islands cannot afford to wait for global movement on climate change. Barely two meters above sea level, the stakes are a bit high here.  And having had our share of displaced populations, we do not see moving elsewhere as a viable option.  We are partnering with our neighbors in Micronesia in examining alternative financial mechanisms for economic security and earlier this month held a workshop in the islands on the subject of Debt for Adaptation Swap on Climate Change.  This promises to be an innovative means of dealing with nonperforming governmental development loans of the recent past.

    The Micronesia Challenge is a partnership of island states of the North Pacific to jointly set aside for protection and conservation substantial areas of their individual and collective territories.   In addition, Palau, the state of Kosrae in Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands have declared a total ban on fishing and finning of Sharks in their economic zones, effectively creating the world’s largest shark sanctuary.  We are taking these extraordinary steps as proud stewards and protectors of some of the world’s richest and most diverse ecosystems.  We want to leave our planet intact for the benefit of our children, and their children’s children.

    Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has been stalwart in its mission of nuclear disarmament and the elimination of the nuclear threat to man.  For the nearly two decades I have been associated with its efforts, I can attest to its diligence and dedication to marshal its resources to promoting peace and harmony in a nuclear free world.  That goal is pure in its intent, necessary in pursuit, and is the only option through which we can leave a world where healthy children and a healthy environment can live in harmony, now and forever.

    For whatever is remaining of my life, I pledge to follow this dream that one day we can rid the world of the scourge of nuclear weapons and that peace can be achieved not by what harm we can do to each other, but by what good we can do together.

    I share in this award, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, and recognize with gratitude those who have walked with me in this journey of life. I want to thank most especially my wife and my best friend, Rosalie, and our three daughters – Doreen, Dolores and Sally Ann for always standing by my side and supporting me, even when the odds were overwhelming.  My dad, my brothers and sisters and the numerous people who have made it possible for me to be recognized and honored, I wish to express to you my deepest gratitude and kamolol (mahalos).

    For me, the work to address the plight of all affected peoples continues with renewed determination. We owe it to the nuclear victims and the nuclear survivors, but most importantly we owe it to the future generations of our planet.

    Yokwe and God Bless you all.

  • Standing Together for Our Common Future

    David Krieger delivered these remarks at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 29th Annual Evening for Peace on October 21, 2012.


    David KriegerI want to begin with a poem.  I wrote this poem for the International Day of Peace, but I think it works well for our Evening for Peace.



    On this day, like any other,
    soldiers are killing and dying,
    arms merchants are selling their wares,
    missiles are aimed at your heart,
    and peace is a distant dream.


    Not just for today, but for each day,
    let’s sheathe our swords, save the sky
    for clouds, the oceans for mystery
    and the earth for joy. 


    Let’s stop honoring the war makers
    and start giving medals for peace.


    On this day, like any other,
    there are infinite possibilities to change
    our ways. 


    Peace is an apple tree heavy with fruit,
    a new way of loving the world.


    Our theme tonight is “Standing Together for Our Common Future.”  We all share in the responsibility for our common future.  Our challenge is to stand together to assure the best possible future for our children and grandchildren.  This is a global challenge; and it should be a universal desire.


    The Nuclear Age is just 67 years old.  During this short time, we humans have created, by our technological prowess, some serious obstacles to assuring our common future.  Climate change, pollution of the oceans and atmosphere, modern warfare and its preparations, and nuclear dangers are at the top of any list of critical global problems.  None of these dangers can be solved by any one country alone.  It no longer takes just a village.  It takes a world.  And within that world it takes, if not each of us, certainly far more of us.


    Let me share with you how Archbishop Tutu, a Foundation Advisor and one of the great moral leaders of our time, describes nuclear weapons.  He says, “Nuclear weapons are an obscenity.  They are the very antithesis of humanity, of goodness in this world.  What security do they help establish?  What kind of world community are we actually seeking to build when nations possess and threaten to use arms that can wipe all of humankind off the globe in an instant?”


    At the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, we work to abolish nuclear weapons –  insanely destructive weapons that cannot be used, or even possessed, without violating the most basic legal and moral precepts.  Nuclear weapons threaten civilization and our very survival as a species.  And yet, 50 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and more than 20 years after the end of the Cold War, the US and Russia still keep some 2,000 of these weapons on high-alert, ready to be fired in moments of an order to do so. 


    The weapons have not gone away, nor have the dangers they pose to humanity.  There are still 19,000 of them in the world.  Ninety-five percent of these weapons are in the arsenals of the US and Russia.  The remaining five percent are in the arsenals of seven more nuclear weapon states.


    Nuclear weapons do not protect us. Nuclear weapons are not a defense; they are only good for threatening retaliation or committing senseless acts of vengeance.


    The use of nuclear weapons is beyond the control of any country.  Let me illustrate this by telling you about Nuclear Famine.  Scientists modeled a relatively small nuclear war in which India and Pakistan were to use 50 nuclear weapons each on the other side’s cities.  The result of this war would be to put enough soot from burning cities into the upper stratosphere to reduce warming sunlight to the point that we would experience the lowest temperatures on Earth in 1,000 years. This would result in shortened growing seasons and crop failures, leading to starvation and Nuclear Famine killing hundreds of millions of people, perhaps a billion, throughout the world. 


    Let me emphasize that this would be the consequence of a small nuclear war using less than half of one percent of the world’s nuclear explosive power.  And, it would be a regional nuclear war, over which the US could not exert any control.  It would nonetheless be a war with global consequences for all of us.
     
    All of this is serious and sobering.  But, you may ask, what can we do about it?


    At the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, we are focusing on collective action and collective impact, in which the whole – each of us standing together – is greater than the sum of its parts. 


    We are also pursuing legal action related to breaches of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by the US and other nuclear weapon states parties to the treaty. The treaty calls for the pursuit of negotiations in good faith for effective measures related to a cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date, to nuclear disarmament and for a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control. 


    Since the Treaty entered into force in 1970, it would be hard to argue 42 years later that there has been a cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date.  Nor has there been serious nuclear disarmament or a treaty on general and complete disarmament. 


    Our current education and advocacy work reaches and mobilizes our 57,000 members who join in taking action for our common future.  We plan to expand this number exponentially across the world.  We hope that you will all join us in this mission to assure the human future.


    Tonight we stand together with the people of the Marshall Islands, a country that was part of the Trust Territory of the United States after World War II.  The Marshall Islanders are easygoing and friendly people. They put their trust in the United States, but we abused that trust by testing nuclear weapons on their territory.  We began that atmospheric nuclear testing in 1946, when we were the only country in the world with nuclear weapons, and we continued testing there for 12 years until 1958. 


    We tested 67 times in the Marshall Islands, using powerful nuclear and thermonuclear weapons – the equivalent explosive power of having tested 1.7 Hiroshima bombs each day for 12 years.  On March 1, 1954, we tested our largest nuclear bomb ever, code-named Bravo, which had the power of 15 million tons of TNT. 


    We irradiated many of the people of the Marshall Islands, causing them death, injury and untold sorrow.  Many had to leave their home islands and live elsewhere.  Many have suffered cancers and leukemia, and the illness and death has carried over into the children of new generations of Marshall Islanders.


    These are the tragic effects of a world that maintains, tests and relies upon nuclear weapons.  In this world, our human rights are threatened and abused by nuclear weapons, as the Marshallese have experienced first-hand.


    As a traditional island nation, the Marshallese enjoyed a self-sufficient sustainable way of life before nuclear weapons testing.  Now, they struggle to uphold basic human rights:



    • to adequate health and life.
    • to adequate food and nutrition.
    • to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.
    • to enjoyment of a safe, clean and healthy sustainable environment.

    In September of this year, the Foundation’s representative in Geneva spoke to the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of the Marshall Islanders.  He stated: “NAPF aligns itself with the UN Special Rapporteur’s suggestion that the international community, the United States, and the Government of the Marshall Islands must develop long-term strategic measures to address the effects of the nuclear testing program and specific challenges in each atoll.  As such, it is imperative that the U.S. government and the international community implement human rights measures to provide adequate redress to the citizens of the Marshall Islands.” 


    In other words, it is the responsibility of the United States and other nuclear weapon states to clean up the radioactive trail of dangerous debris and redress the suffering and human rights abuses they have left behind in their pursuit of ever more powerful and efficient nuclear arms.


    The man we honor tonight, Senator Tony de Brum, was a child when the US nuclear testing was taking place in his islands.  Born in 1945, he personally witnessed most of the detonations that took place, and was nine years old when the most powerful of those explosions, the Bravo test, took place. 


    He went on to become one of the first Marshall Islanders to graduate from college and focused on helping his people to extricate themselves from the legacy of US nuclear testing in his island country.  He has dedicated his life to helping his people and to working to assure they are fairly compensated for the wrongs done to them by nuclear testing.  He has served his people in many ways – as a parliamentarian and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister for Health and the Environment.  He currently represents Kwajalein in the Parliament and is the Minister in Assistance to the President.


    Like others who have suffered and witnessed the suffering caused by nuclear weapons, he has a larger vision: that what happened to his people should not happen again to any other people or country.  I’ve known Tony de Brum for many years.  He is an untiring leader of his people, deeply engaged in seeking justice.  He is a man with a vision of creating a more decent and peaceful future for all humanity. 


    Senator Tony de Brum is a dedicated Peace Leader, and tonight we are pleased to stand with him and the people of the Marshall Islands as we honor him with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 2012 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award.