Opinion
Page 6 Thursday, June 10, 1982 The Michigan Dail~y
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The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCII, No. 26-S
Ninety-two Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
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Friendly skies
M UCH TO THE chagrin of Department of
Interior Secretary James Watt, the
whooping crane and the bald eagle still have
friendly skies to fly in: The House of Represen-
tatives voted to extend the controversial En-
dangered Species Act for three more years.
The act was up for extension this year, but was
imperiled by a powerful group of vested in-
terests and Watt, who claimed (wrongfully)
that the law halts man's progress or makes it
too costly. But the law does not halt develop-j
ment, it merely tempers it to respect and
protect species diversifcation.
Not one federal project has been stopped
permanently by the act, but many have been
altered to accommodate such rare species as
the whooping crane as well as many other en-
dangered plants and animals. And the act
provices stiff fines and imprisonment for
anyone convicted of killing endangered
animals.
Business leaders and, more recently, gover-
nment leaders often have howled that environ-
mental laws discourage the all-powerful god of
progress. But these regulations are not enacted
to stunt growth; they are enacted to ensure
that America's most precious natural resour-
ces, and thus its beauty, survive.
Blind amb1tion
AS THE WORLD awaits the decisive battle
in the war over the Falklands, an Argentine
official has brought up an almost forgotten
point. Argentina has not signed the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and has the potential
to build an atomic bomb.
While few expect nuclear warfare in the
Falklands, Argentina's statement serves as a
frightening reminder that nuclear technology is
spreading, often falling into the hands of un-
stable, totalitarian regimes.
Already, at least seven nations are known to
have exploded a nuclear device. While many
governments are pursuing nuclear capability,
largely for security reasons, a major
motivation also is the status that goes along
with nuclear bombs. To become a member of
the world's most exclusive club means the big-
power status that nations such as Brazil and
Pakistan seek.
The only way to break this destructive
psychology is for the superpowers to embark on
a downward spiral in nuclear arms production.
Such a move may not halt the spread of-nuclear
weapons technology, but it may give gover-
nments cause to rethink their ambitious, but in-
sane, quests for nuclear bombs.
By Lee Gomes
HONOLULU, HAWAII - Sources
close to the organized landowners
on the Kwajalein Atoll in the
Marshall Islands say the May 30
agreement between the United
States and the Marshall Islands
will not affect their efforts to shut
down an important nuclear
weapons testing facility there.
The agreement, concluded in
Honolulu after 13 years of
negotiation on the Marshall
Islands' future, would allow the
islands to form a republic in a
compact of free association with
the United States. The United
States would continue to defend
the islands and would retain the
right to use Kwajalein Atoll for
ballistic missile tests.
KWAJALEIN islanders main-
tain that the Marshall Islands
government has no right to
negotiate away the rights to their
privately owned land.
In April, a referendum was
scheduled for Aug. 13 for the 5,000
residents of Kwajalein to decide
if they want to renew an
agreement giving the Pentagon
rights to their island chain,
located about 2,500 miles south-
west of here. Kwajalein's leaders
are urging residents to vote
against continued military use
and are predicting a majority
will go along.
They say their opposition to the
Kwajalein Missile Range stems'
from a concern about their role in
the nuclear arms race, as well as
from accumulated resentment
over their treatment at American
hands since 1950, when the U.S.
first began usingthe islands.
Ending military use would also
threaten research on nuclear
weapons delivery systems, such
as the Minutemen rockets and
the proposed MX missile, since
Kwajalein is the chief American
facility for testing missile ac-
curacy.
The Air Force now fires unar-
med test missiles from Vanden-
burg, Calif., aiming them at
Kwajalein's lagoon 4,200 miles
away. Advanced monitoring
equipment at Kwajalein
measures the accuracy of the
rocket's trajectory.
KWAJALEIN also is the site of
the anti-ballistic missile resear-
ch, as well as the locale for
sophisticated monitoring of
Russian equipment.
A researcher with the
Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute has called
Kwajalein "the spot on earth that
contributes most to the nuclear
arms race." The House Armed
Services Committee has
estimated it would cost up to $5
billion to relocate the facilities.
Imada Kabua, president of the
atoll's landowners association
and one of its three senators in
the Marshall Islands'
parliament, recently explained:
will have freedom."
Freedom in their homeland has
been unknown for nearly a
generation of Kwajalein residen-
ts, since many of the islands in
the atoll are off-limits for
military reasons, and permission
must be sought from base of-
ficials for such simple acts as
fishing in the lagoon.
Also believed to be contributing
to anti-military sentiments is
tension between Kwajalein
residents and the Americans em-
ployed at the base. The islanders
are packed together in squalid
conditions on a small island,
while the Americans, many of
them young professionals, are
surrounded by country club com-
forts.
WHILE IT may seem fanciful
for a group of Pacific islanders to
even think of forcing the U.S. to
abandon one of its most impor-
tant military research facilities,
the residents of Kwajalein, and
their American lawyers, insist
they are on firm legal ground in
refusing to renew their "use
agreement" with the U.S.
A spokesman for the command
of the missile range said it was
the military's position that the
United States bargains with the
government of the Marshall
Islands, rather than the people of
Kwajalein, for rights to the atoll.
Giff Johnson, of the Micronesian
Support Committee which works
for the political independence for
Micronesia, said that islanders
began making non-economic
demands in earlier rounds of
negotiations, such as seeking an
end to random searches of
residents by military police.
"When they came out with
those, people said, 'They just
want more money.' But they
stuck with those points," he said.
Johnson is taking a wait-and-see
attitude on the current issue, but
he said, "My feeling is that
they're getting stronger all the
time, and that money is not the
mainissue."
Gomes wrote this article for
the Pacific News Service.
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No place to land?
"My people view the United
States as our closest friends. But
the people of our country call no
other nation our enemy. The
systems being tested at
Kwajalein are offensive
weapons. To the extent that we
assist the development of nuclear
weapons delivery systems - and
that is the U.S. activity at
Kwajalein - we become involved
in responsibility for their
ultimate use," he said.
ASKED ABOUT the effect of a
pullout on Kwajalein's economy,
Kabua said, "Many things will
happen. People will have to live
like they do in the rest of the Mar-
shall Islands. They won't have
the dollars they do now. But they
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