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9/27/11 (AEIN) Foreign Minister John Silk of the Marshall Islands spoke to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. He called for recognition of the effects caused by nuclear testing on the islands, according to a U.N. statement released Monday night.
The Marshallese official stated that the United Nations must uphold its obligation to respond to the aftermath of the testing. He said that the testing had caused cancer and forced people to leave their homes, despite safety assurances given by the U.N. in the past.
The United States conducted sixty-seven nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands during the 1950s, with U.N. approval. The islands are located in the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Micronesia and Papua New Guinea. They became independent from the U.S. in 1986.