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Presidents and First Ladies met recently in New York City.
This Week's
Inside Stories
MEC's new power plan
New Marshalls Energy Company General Manager David Paul has a three-point plan for revitalizing the company.
“We are working on a ‘comprehensive recovery plan,’” said Paul. The plan focuses on power generation, distribution and the tank farm and involves completing a detailed assessment of needs in each of the three areas with recommendations for moving forward, he said.
Banny sworn
in at the ICC
“New” RMI Ambassador to Washington Banny deBrum was sworn in during a ceremony at the ICC Tuesday before a large audience. High Court Chief Justice Carl Ingram conducted the actual swearing in ceremony. Foreign Minister John Silk said deBrum, who served more than 20 years in the RMI’s DC embassy, including 12 as ambassador up to February 2008, has been “instrumental in strengthening the special and unique relationship” between the US and the RMI.
Trust fund
at $87.7m
At the end of August, the Marshall Islands government’s trust fund stood at $87.7 million — nearly returning to the level it had attained two years previously before the financial collapse that hit global financial markets starting in late-2008.
You can't take my land
Kwajalein Iroij Imata Kabua has stepped up the battle for Kwajalein after 2016 by filing a lawsuit Monday in the High Court against the RMI government and its agreement with the United States for future use of Kwajalein. The RMI government “took the lands and gave them to the United States of America to occupy and use exclusively, first from 2016 to 2023, and then on to 2066 in Compact of Free Association II and the amended Military Use and Operating Rights Agreement (MUORA) that is part of Compact II,” Kabua’s lawsuit says. He said the RMI government took islands in the so-called “Mid-Corridor” at Kwajalein “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.”
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The existing Land Use Agreement (LUA) from Compact I ends in 2016. Compact II’s MUORA extends American use of Kwajalein to 2066, with an option to renew to 2086, but Kabua has adamantly refusedto sign a new LUA
needed to implement the terms of the MUORA in Compact II. Last month, President Litokwa Tomeing flew to Kwajalein to present a draft LUA to Kwajalein leaders. But while some leaders have indicated their desire to sign and approve a new LUA, Kabua has refused. The lawsuit says the action by the RMI government to “take” the lands over which Kabua is iroijlaplap is a direct violation of the RMI Constitution and the Land Acquisition Act of 1986. “It’s not money I’m after (with the lawsuit),” Kabua told the Journal by telephone from Honolulu Tuesday. “It’s my rights under the Constitution.” The RMI government “is applying economic pressure on (Kabua) to accept a lease on terms dictated by (RMI) so as to deny (Kabua) the benefit” of the RMI Constitution and the Land Acquisition Act of 1986. Kabua called the land use agreement proposed by the RMI government as “one-sided” and not offering “just compensation” to him for use of the lands beyond 2016. Through his attorney David Lowe, Kabua is asking the High Court to resolve the legal status between Kabua and the RMI 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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ADB back in again
By GIFF JOHNSON
Improved relations between the Marshall Islands and the Asian Development Bank are opening the door to the ADB’s first large-scale funding to RMI since the early 2000s. Since March, the RMI has been current with its monthly loan payments to ADB and has cleared off all back dues, a fact that has been favorably noted at the bank’s Manila headquarters. “The Marshall Islands cleared its past due dating to 2005 and is paying every month,” ADB RMI Desk Officer Kyoshi Nakamitsu told the Journal. “This has normalized relations between RMI and ADB.” As a result, “ADB is considering mobilizing a large chunk of funding for the RMI,” Nakamitsu said during his recent visit to Majuro. ADB has funded only a few technical assistance programs to RMI in recent years, but no loans or grants have been on the table until this recent improvement in relations. Minister of Finance Jack Ading has played a key role in the improving relations, said Nakamitsu. Ading and RMI officials are discussing with ADB two grant options:
• Funding to help improve operations at the Marshalls Energy Company.
• Support for public sector reform.
While everyone agrees that there is a need for reform in the public sector, Nakamitsu said the ADB has no intention of driving reforms in the government here. “The ownership of this has to be under the RMI government,” he said. “It must be home grown. If the government agrees to a plan and brings it to ADB, the bank will be happy to support it.” Nakamitsu also said any discussion about a reduction in force is premature, and in any event will not be coming from ADB. He acknowledged the sensitivity of the issue, but said ADB is not proposing to layoff
government workers. Any public service reform plan must come from the RMI government to be effective, he said. He said the Public Service Commission had presented a proposal to him regarding reform. If Cabinet endorses a plan of action, it can then come to ADB for action. On MEC, he said a plan is now with ADB to approve about $3 million for the installation of pre-paid electric meters in Majuro, improving distribution of power that now is suffering high losses, a pilot bio-diesel project for the power plant to test the feasibility of using a coconut oil mix, and support for technical advisors at MEC.
Trainers and trainees show off their accomplishments from a recent Juren Ae-sponsored skills training program. Photo: Douglas Henry.
Banny deBrum is sworn in as RMI Ambassador to the US by Chief Justice Carl Ingram at the ICC as his wife Honor holds the Bible.
Photo: Giff Johnson

Journal 10/10/1970

Journal 10/8/1974
P1 The Fiji Islands, a colony of the British Crown for 96 years, became an independent nation today. Independence ceremonies will be spread over a three-day period. Tentative celebration plans include the welcoming of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne.
P1 “American colonialism seems to me to be more the French than the British type,” Sir Kamisese Mara, the Chief Minister of this British colony, soon to be independent, told a visitor from the US recently. The western educated Fijian leader’s comment was mild compared to appraisals of the American performance in the Pacific by other observers, according to an article that appeared in the New York Times last week. An Australian, with an international organization in a dependent territory, and a British official, interviewed the same week on another island hundreds of miles
P1 Going places — Tepni Neptali is going to San Francisco at the end of October for five weeks along with Vincent Reimers to study repair of OMC Outboard engines. Both men work for Robert Reimers Enterprises in Majuro.
P1 Will Carl Heine be running in this November election against incumbent from the Marshalls Senator Amata Kabua? Big question as everyone knows. Latest word from Majuro sources (that is John Heine, a COM representative from this district) is that Carl (or Lon, as he is known here) will be running.
P1 “Outbursts enliven Trust Isles budget meet,” was the headline in the Thursday Honolulu Star-Bulletin rendition of a story by John Simonds. The story described a “brief but spirited confrontation” before a Senate subcommittee considering a $15
million budget increase for Micronesia. The flap occurred between High Commissioner Edward Johnston and one of his more persistent critics Richard Thorpe. According to Simonds: Thorpe testified against the proposed increase of $60 to $75 million and called Johnston a dictator and said the situation in Micronesia amounted to “a scandal in capital letters.” Thorpe is a heavy equipment dealer lobbiest for investigation of allegations of mismanagement here, specifically in the area of surplus equipment. He charged the TT sold barges to private concerns for bargain prices, and that Johnston has failed to develop Micronesian coconut production in the face of a growing world market for copra. The HiCom jumped up and said: “We consider Mr. Thorpe’s charges totally unfounded as well as libelous and slanderous.”
away, used the same phrase in describing the posture of the United States as “worse than the French.”
P2 Clara’s Restaurant was completely destroyed in a fire last Saturday. The blaze began when grease in the kitchen ignited and quickly kindled some propane nearby. Firemen arrived at the scene in Rita village approximately 20 minutes after the fire started, but by that time the roof was collapsing. Dave Peres estimated the loss at $20,000.
P3 A large grey Mazda truck was stolen early last Tuesday morning, but before it was recovered by police two hours later, the intoxicated driver collided with a ship, hit another vehicle three times, ran into a new house under construction, and finally stopped after hitting a coconut tree. The vehicle was stolen at 4:30 am. An hour later the intoxicated youth was driving on the dock with several friends and veere off the edge of the dock over the railing and landed against the Etai Maru, owned by Molik Wholesale. The ship’s crane was used to hoist the vehicle back onto the doc. An eyewitness said police were present at the scene but let the youth go. Half an hour later the truck caused extensive damage to a Sabrosco taxi near Rocktown Bar by banging into it three times. Then the driver drove wildly through a crowded housing area, causing damage to posts, washing buckets, a new house and the truck itself. The truck was finally stopped by a firmly rooted coconut tree. After being taken to jail, the driver was sentenced to three months in jail for multiple driving infractions.

Journal 10/2/1992
P1 The High Court wants the government to prosecute people who knowingly buy stolen goods. Chief Justice Neil Rutledge said people who purchase stolen property only encourage more crimes to be committed.
P6 It turns out not everyone wants to get out of jail here in Majuro. Yep, one fellow was asked if he wanted to post bail, and he said “nope,” he’d just as soon stay inside until trial. This young fellow then spent three months behind bars until his sentencing this week. The prosecutor told the High Court that if this guy had no motivation to leave the jail, he didn’t want him in. So the sentence was three years suspended, and community service. But no more jail time for someone who wanted it.
P21 The Nuclear Claims Tribunal is anticipating making its annual compensation payment at the end of October, according to Tribunal staff. The Tribunal recently announced its intension to pay eight percent of the total awards in October. The funds will become available to the Tribunal on October 21.