Marshall Islands President Jurelang Zedkaia said Thursday he was shocked to hear that “our friends (the U.S. government) are treating us like this.”
Speaking to parliament, Kwajalein Sen. Tony deBrum said the wife of the Marshall Islands government representative to the U.S. Army base was suspended and banned from Kwajalein after she was caught purchasing a can of cola for a resident of Ebeye, a small island where about 10,000 Marshall Islanders live in overcrowded conditions near the Army base island.
This is not just a personal and professional insult, it is also a sovereign assault, deBrum said.
Marshall Islands official Jeltan Anjain, his wife Joanna, and their family reside on the base at Kwajalein, but his wife has been banned from living at the base. The Army base has been a center of missile defense testing since the mid-1960s and employs more than 1,000 Marshall Islanders.
“The U.S. is treating us like American Indians, like we’re low class citizens,” Zedkaia said. “Our liaison officer Jelton Anjain is like our ambassador. To suspend his wife over the purchase of a cola, I can’t believe they would treat us like this.”
U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll public relations official Vanessa Peeden said because of privacy requirements, she could not speak about a particular case.
“I can tell you that written regulations regarding the sale and transfer of retail items at USAKA were put in place at the request of the government of the Marshall Islands to protect Ebeye businesses from losing profits and the Marshallese government from losing tax income,” Peeden said.
USAKA strongly supports the Marshall Islands government request to enforce this policy, she said, adding that information about the regulation is frequently put out to the public.
Military-supported businesses at USAKA, which are primarily for the use of people who live and work at USAKA, are available only by permission and violations of any rules are adjudicated regardless of rank or nationality, Peeden said. “There is a process that allows those who are accused of violations to have his or her side of the story heard and any decision regarding a penalty can be appealed.”
DeBrum told the parliament that the three Kwajalein members of parliament have requested a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Martha Campbell to discuss grievances over this treatment by the Army.
“We need to meet with the Kwajalein leadership and the U.S. Ambassador to make it known that we are not happy with this type of treatment,” Zedkaia said.
