Marshall Islands setback on disarmament By Josh Butler <\/p>\n
UNITED NATIONS - A lawsuit by the Marshall Islands accusing the United States of failing to begin negotiations for nuclear disarmament has been thrown out of an American court. <\/p>\n
The Marshall Islands is currently pursuing actions against India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom in the International Court of Justice, for failing to negotiate nuclear disarmament as required in the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. <\/p>\n
Action against the US had been filed in a federal court in <\/p>\n
California, as the United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICJ. <\/p>\n
David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, said the US conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, the equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs detonating daily for 12 years. <\/p>\n
Despite documented health effects still plaguing Marshallese islanders, US Federal Court judge Jeffrey White dismissed the motion on Feb. 3, saying the harm caused by the US flouting the NPT was \"speculative\". <\/p>\n
White also said the Marshall Islands lacked standing to bring the case, and that the court's ruling was bound by the \"political question doctrine\" - that is, White ruled the question was a political one, not a legal one, and he therefore could not rule for the Marshalls. <\/p>\n
Krieger, whose Nuclear Age Peace Foundation supports Marshall Islands in its legal cases, called the decision \"absurd\". <\/p>\n
\"I think it was an error in his decision. There were very good grounds to say the Marshall Islands had standing, and this shouldn't have been considered a political question,\" he told IPS. \"The Marshall Islands know very well what it means to have nuclear bombs dropped on a country. They've suffered greatly, it's definitely not speculative.\" <\/p>\n
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