WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - More than 100 arms-control, environmental and other activist groups have urged the Biden administration to formally apologize to the Marshall Islands for the impact of massive nuclear testing there in the 1940s and '50s and to provide fair compensation.
The activists, led by the by the Arms Control Association and including Greenpeace, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Marshallese Education Initiative, made the call in a Dec. 5 letter to President Joe Biden.
It urged Washington to deliver on promises of nuclear justice in ongoing negotiations with the Marshall Islands on renewing a Compact of Free Association (COFA) that has been the basis of relations with the Pacific territory since the 1980s.
COFA provisions will expire in 2023 for the Marshall Islands and another Pacific territory, the Federated States of Micronesia, and with Palau in 2024.
They said that as well as issuing a formal apology and meeting compensation claims, Washington should support long-term environmental remediation, expand access to healthcare, especially for illnesses associated with radiation exposure, and declassify documents related on nuclear testing.