CNMI bombs away

Transcript

The United States Military's plans to use two islands in the Northern Marianas as live fire ranges has aroused strong feelings in the territory in the northwest Pacific.

In an Environmental Impact Statement released last month, the military plans to build live-fire and training facilities on the islands of Tinian and Pagan for use by the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines.

But Northern Marianas lawmakers say the islands will be destroyed if the military goes ahead with its plans, as Jamie Tahana reports.

Under the United States' pivot to the Asia-Pacific announced by President Obama in 2011, significant military resource will be moved to the region, including strengthening the Air Force and Navy base on Guam,  and establishing a Marine Corp presence.  The Executive Director of the Marine Corp Forces Pacific, Craig Whelden, says the existing live-fire and training facilities in the western Pacific are insufficient to support these expanded requirements.  In its 1,000 page Environmental Impact Statement released last month, the military has proposed leasing the CNMI islands of Tinian and Pagan, something our Northern Marians correspondent, Mark Rabago, says the public is largely opposed to.

MARK RABAGO:  So far, there's been a large opposition here against the military bases. They equate it to basically saying that the military will be bombing the island of Pagan to smithereens and it will not be viable for future habitation and saying that giving up will be tantamount to giving up natural resources in an island that's already deprived of large tracts of land.

On Tinian, an island criss-crossed with overgrown runways left over from its previous use as a major US airbase in the Second World War, the military wants to construct four ranges to be used for live-fire high explosives from the air and ground.  It also plans to dredge part of a reef that the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality considers an essential habitat for fish to spawn, breed and grow so it can build a ramp for assault vehicles.  But most of the activity will be on Pagan, an island the military hopes to lease in its entireity for aircraft to drop light bombs on select targets and Navy battleships to fire at targets from the sea. It would also host beach and amphibious landings, mortar fire and night time operations.  The mayor of the Northern Islands, which includes Pagan, Jerome Aldan, opposes the idea, saying indigenous and cultural factors haven't been taken into account.  He says Pagan has a history dating back to Chamorro settlement in the 1300s right up until the 1980s, when the original inhabitants were evacuated during volcanic eruptions.  He says this community was hoping to resettle on Pagan in the near future.

JEROME ALDAN:  Well the military likes to use that word 'uninhabited', but that's a false statement, that's not really true. We're from here and we know what's going  on in our islands. What do you think about live-fire and live-bombing? For me, it's destruction, contamination and basically after they're done the island is going to turn into a wasteland.

But the executive director of Marine Forces Pacific, Craig Whelden, says Pagan and Tinian will only be used for 16 weeks a year and the military is meeting with communities to work out what it can do to factor in their concerns.

CRAIG WHELDEN:  We have gone above and beyond what the law requires in terms of engagement through these ad-hoc meetings. We said early on, 'tell us what your concerns and your issues are.' For example, access to the northern two-thirds of the island, special use air space to make sure we minimise any impact on air traffic from Saipan. Those are all issues that they raised a year ago which we've been meeting regularly on to close any gaps and we'll continue to do that.

Mark Rabago says the military's plans, once finalised, will need approval by Congress in Washington.  He says if public opposition remains high in the CNMI, then it would be up to the territory's delegate to Congress, Gregorio Kilili Sablan, to take the fight to Washington.  However, with the CNMI being a non-incorporated territory, Mr Sablan has no vote in Congress, so he would have to try and exert influence on those who do have a vote, something the Pentagon is likely to do as well.  But Mark Rabago says public attention could sway Congress.

MARK RABAGO:  He could bring attention back to his colleagues about the public opinion here in the CNMI and it could be very detrimental to the military if they force the islands to surrender one of their islands, especially such a small place. He cannot vote, but at the same time he can exert influence to his colleagues up in Congress.

The public in the CNMI have until the 3rd of June to make a submission about the proposal.