Retired Ambassador Offers Insight To Marshall Islands

Martha Campbell, former U.S. ambassador to the Marshall Islands, wears a traditional Marshallese “wut,” or headband, while speaking Tuesday about the history and relationship between the U.S. and the Micronesian nation at NorthWest Arkansas Community Collegein Bentonville.
Martha Campbell, former U.S. ambassador to the Marshall Islands, wears a traditional Marshallese “wut,” or headband, while speaking Tuesday about the history and relationship between the U.S. and the Micronesian nation at NorthWest Arkansas Community Collegein Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE — The relationship between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands is difficult to describe, Martha L. Campbell, retired ambassador to the islands, told an audience Tuesday.

The island nation has a U.S. military base, is a former nuclear test site and birthplace to many who now call Northwest Arkansas home, Campbell said.

Campbell spoke at NorthWest Arkansas Community College as part of the school's 2013 Marshall Islands-themed semester.

At A Glance

The Marshall Islands

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is an independent country. A compact of free association allows its citizens to live and visit in the United States freely.

The country is made of 29 atolls, or coral-based islands, and is between Hawaii and Australia.

Following World War II, the Marshall Islands became part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands before gaining its independence in 1986.

Source: U.S. State Department; Northwest Arkansas Community College

Three nations have compact of free association with the United States: the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.

“These three compacts with these three states is not like anything else we have in the world,” Campbell said.

The agreement means the United States defends the Marshall Islands as if it were a state and federal agencies serve some of the population. The Coast Guard can be called in from Hawaii to rescue boaters and the Centers for Disease Control may do some immunizations, although neither agency is based there.

When the compact of free association was set up it came with financial assistance. In 2001 the agreement was set to end, but the country wasn’t financially ready and an amended compact began in 2004. Additional money will go through 2023, Campbell said, but at reduced levels as U.S. payments enter a trust fund for the island nation.

“The compact continues to be in effect after 2023, but the funding will wind down,” she said.

Anita Toming-Iban, parent and community liaison for the Springdale School District and Marshallese interpreter, asked Campbell if that would change the status for Marshallese living in Arkansas. Campbell said no.

Although she hasn’t lived in the Marshall Islands in 28 years, Toming-Iban said she tries to stay informed on issues affecting her homeland.

Marshallese moving to Northwest Arkansas are looking for better jobs and better education for their kids, Toming-Iban said. Some also come for medical reasons, because treatment options are limited, she said. Education can be an issue for newly-arrived students, Toming-Iban said, because although English class starts in first grade, the quality of teachers varies among isolated islands.

Student Ryan Holland started his first semester at the college by attending the kickoff event for the semester. He is working with other students on a service learning project that will showcase their research into the culture and history of the Marshall Islands. Holland is researching the nuclear testing site.

“The more I got looking into it I was like, ‘Man, we screwed those people over,’” he said.

Nuclear testing between 1947 and 1962 affected four islands — Enewetok, Bikini, Rongelap and Utrik, Campbell said, including the March 1, 1954, Castle Bravo test of a hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll.

Nuclear testing is still a very sensitive subject. The radiation levels have dropped on the affected islands, but cesium, a radioactive material, is absorbed by plants looking for potassium and contaminates bananas, coconuts or other foods grown there. Potassium-enriched soil fixes the problem.

“They can be there, but they can't eat the plants that are grown there,” she said.

Supplies and food are typically shipped by boat and the trips from island to island can be a half-day to several days, Campbell said. Some islands have unpaved airstrips.

The U.S Army Kwajalein Atoll Reagan Missile Test Site still tests non-radioactive missiles and tracks space debris, Campbell said. Only 16 military personnel are posted on the island, she said, and the other 1,000 Americans who work there are rocket scientists.

With the large population of Marshallese in Springdale, the Marshall Islands semester was drawn up with the purpose of helping the community and educating students, said Kathryn Birkhead, director for diversity and inclusion at the college.

“We thought it would help us all to understand more,” Birkhead said.

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