To the People of the United States:

We, the nuclear victims of the Marshall Islands, need your help!

Please copy the message below [or create your own using the information above] and e-mail (Congress e-mail directory) or write your Congressional representative to help the nuclear victims of the Marshall Islands achieve the medical care they deserve and were promised by the U.S. Congress in 1980:

Dear ----------,

I am writing to you in support of the people of Bikini Atoll, Enewetak Atoll, Rongelap Atoll and Uterik Atoll, all of whom are victims of the U.S. weapons testing program that occurred in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958. These tests included the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested by the United States, the 15 megaton Bravo shot, which was detonated on March 1, 1954 on Bikini Atoll.

The people of these 4 atolls were promised a general health care program under Public Law 96-205, which was passed in 1980 by the U.S. Congress. In 1986, under the first Compact of Free Association between the United States and the Marshall Islands, the U.S. Congress authorized $2 million per year to fund the 4 Atoll Section 177 Health Care Program. This funding expired in 2001 and was not renewed under the new Compact recently negotiated and passed by both governments. This program included a much needed layer of general health care for the nuclear victims of the Marshall Islands. Without this program these victims have been made to compete with the general population of the Marshall Islands for their medical needs. This is unfair, and it should not be allowed to stand.

I would like to request that the U.S. Congress allocate funds to provide the nuclear victims of the Marshall Islands with this much needed health care. The people of the Marshall Islands have been steadfast allies of the United States for many years. They provided the United States with their lands, and at times sacrificed their lives, for the U.S. nuclear testing program on Bikini and Enewetak atolls from 1946 to 1958. Currently, there is a U.S. military base on Kwajalein Atoll that is used for testing U.S. missile systems, and Marshallese citizens fight in the uniform of the U.S. armed forces. Many of these young men and women are in Iraq and Afganistan today bravely defending the American way of life. What more does the Marshall Islands have to do to show their friendship and support for the United States?

I would like to request that you please support this immediate and pressing need for the people of the Marshall Islands.

Respectfully submitted,

YOUR NAME