Page 26 - Respond 2018 Magazine

24

1945-2017: Tony de Brum,

Marshallese climate and

anti-nuclear crusader

By Karl Mathiesen

De Brum, who fought for justice for his tiny island nation against formidable economic
and political odds, died in August aged 72

Born in 1945, Tony de Brum grew up on the island of Likiep. This childhood memory became de Brum’s creation story
When he was still a child the US, the colonial power in the and a pivotal experience he often used to explain the path
Marshalls at the time, conducted a programme of 67 nuclear his life took. He was one of the first Marshall Islanders to
tests that saw many hundreds of Marshallese displaced after graduate from university and became his country’s chief
their atolls were blown up and irradiated. negotiator in their attempt to receive fair reparations for the
annihilation and poisoning of their land.
Many years later, De Brum recalled viewing the mother of
these explosions – the 1954 Bravo shot – while fishing with He was a key figure in achieving the full independence of his
his grandfather 200 miles away. The pair were suddenly country in 1986 on terms that granted Marshall Islanders
blinded, he said, as if the sun had grown across the entire a compact of free association and $150m compensation
sky. Then everything, the palms, the sea, the fishing nets, for the damages caused by the tests. This deal has since
turned red. Later, a fine irritating white ash rained down, like been criticised, by de Brum himself as well as others, as
snow, he said. inadequate compared to the costs that continue to be borne
by the Marshallese.
With the force of 1000 Hiroshima bombs, the Bravo test
reshaped Bikini atoll, and de Brum’s life, forever. The While in recent years de Brum has become associated with
displacement of the islanders of Bikini and other atolls, as climate action, his anti-nuclear crusade was the work of his
well as the deaths due to radiation, is a legacy the Marshall lifetime and extended beyond the interests of his people.
Islands still struggles with today. In 2014, under his ministry, the Marshall Islands launched
a legal attack on the US government, accusing them of
breaching the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty
(NPT). In the same year he was the architect of a landmark
case in the International Court of Justice that charged
nine nuclear powers with failing to negotiate nuclear
disarmament in good faith.

Speaking to assembled NPT members last year in New York,
he said: “Because no one ever considered the humanitarian
impacts of nuclear weapons, the Marshallese people still
carry a burden which no other people or nation should
ever have to bear. And this is a burden we will carry for
generations to come.”

He received several awards for his anti-nuclear activism and
was nominated for last year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

De Brum lived on the capital atoll of Majuro and became the
patriarch of one of the island’s largest and most successful
families. During a long political career, de Brum served
The “Baker” explosion, a nuclear weapon test by the US military as minister for health, minister for finance and minister
at Bikini Atoll, Micronesia, on 25 July 1946. Photo: United States in-assistance to the president. He was three times foreign
Department of Defense minister – most recently until 2016 before losing his seat in