24 Aug 2012

Long time advocate for Rongelap nuclear test victims dies

7:03 pm on 24 August 2012

A survivor of nuclear fallout from a Pacific hydrogen bomb test, who traveled the globe to speak out about health problems she and fellow fallout victims suffered, has died in Majuro.

Lijon Eknilang was one of 82 Rongelap Islanders who were engulfed by a snowstorm of radioactive fallout from the United States 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll.

Our Marshall Islands correspondent, Giff Johnson says Ms Eknilang, who was just 8 years old at the time of the Bravo test, became an icon in the Marshall Islands for her international advocacy on behalf of nuclear test victims.

"She was probably one of the most well known Rongelap or Marshall Islands people who went out, went on speaking tours in Europe and the United States, attended conferences and just was a very passionate voice talking about the reality of what Marshall Islanders felt and saw."

Giff Johnson