MARSHALLS CHIEF FILES SUIT AGAINST U.S. BASE
Former president Kabua says lease treaty illegal
By Giff Johnson
MAJURO, Marshall Islands (Marianas Variety, Oct. 12, 2009) – A powerful traditional chief in the Marshall Islands has stepped up the battle for control of a United States missile testing range by filing a court challenge to a treaty that gives the U.S. control of the base after 2016 when the current lease expires.
Former Marshall Islands President and powerful traditional chief Imata Kabua said Thursday the Marshall Islands government illegally “took the lands at Kwajalein Atoll and gave them to the United States of America to occupy and use exclusively, first from 2016 to 2023, and then to 2066” in Compact of Free Association approved by the two governments in 2003.
His lawsuit filed in the High Court says the government took islands at Kwajalein Kwajalein Atoll “without a lease and has failed and refused to engage in good faith bargaining to secure a new lease” and instead “has demanded that (Kabua) accept the terms dictated by defendant.”
Since the early 1960s, Kwajalein has been a center of U.S. anti-missile defense testing. It is the target for long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles fired from California and many of the islands in this boomerang-shaped coral atoll are studded with radar and other sophisticated missile tracking gear.
An agreement for extension of American use of the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein was approved by the two governments in 2003, but Kabua has refused to sign a “land use agreement” needed to implement the U.S.-Marshall Islands treaty. Landowners have been at loggerheads with the U.S. over rent. The U.S. is providing $15 million annually, now about $17 million because of inflation adjustment, while the landowners demanded $19 million.
An existing land use agreement from the first Compact of Free Association expires in 2016. The second Compact increased the rent payments, while extending American use of Kwajalein to 2066, with an option to renew to 2086. Last month, Marshall Islands President Litokwa Tomeing flew to Kwajalein to present a draft land use agreement to Kwajalein leaders. While three other traditional chiefs who control land at Kwajalein say they are ready to approve the deal, Kabua, whose domain includes the most land at the missile range, has not budged.
The lawsuit says the action by the Marshall Islands government to “take” the lands over which Kabua is paramount chief is a direct violation of the country’s constitution. All land in the Marshall Islands is privately held, and the Constitution requires the approval of landowners for any lease or sale of property.
“It’s not money I’m after (with the lawsuit),” Kabua said in an interview from Honolulu. “It’s my rights under the Constitution.”
More than $25 million — the accumulated increase in rent payments since 2003 — is sitting in a bank account waiting for landowner signatures on a new land use agreement before it will be released.
Kabua accused his government of “applying economic pressure on (Kabua) to accept a lease on terms dictated by (the government).”
Kabua called the land use agreement proposed by the President as “one-sided” and not offering “just compensation” to him for use of the lands beyond 2016.
He said that if the government’s “failure and refusal to comply with the Constitution and the laws of the Republic is allowed to continue unabated, (Kabua) will suffer irreparable harm and injury to his Iroijlaplap (paramount chief) title and interest in land.”
Through his California-based attorney David Lowe, Kabua is asking the High Court to resolve the legal status between Kabua and the Marshall Islands government regarding Kwajalein lands “particularly as to (Kabua’s) right to occupy, use and have the quiet enjoyment of (these) lands from and after termination of the Land Use Agreement (in 2016).”
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