Senator Ataji Balos, who represents Kwajalein Atoll home to a major US missile test range, announced Thursday that Kwajalein landowners have hired the law firm of Mississippi-based Richard F. Scruggs.

Scruggs is an American attorney credited with engineering the first victory against the US tobacco industry in the mid-1990s, which resulted in a four billion dollar settlement for the state of Mississippi.

Balos said in an interview the legal firm had been hired to "get the landowners a better deal" in upcoming negotiations on a treaty between the US and Marshall Islands governments known as Compact of Free Association.

US State Department officials, however, have repeatedly said the issue of the rent for Kwajalein is not on the table in the negotiations that will address future economic aid to the Marshall Islands.

"I can see how much the United States needs Kwajalein," said Sato Maie, one of three Kwajalein senators in the Marshalls national parliament.

"Its worth more than what they are paying. Thats why I say that Kwajalein isnt a done deal. They havent been fair."

The underlying threat -- so far unspoken by landowners -- is the knowledge that in the 1970s and early 1980s, disgruntled Kwajalein landowners repeatedly led "sail-in" protests to their off-limits islands, disrupting US missile testing schedules.

The earlier protests helped to jack up US rental payments from a few hundred thousand dollars annually to the Compacts current nearly 13 million dollars annual payment.

The Marshalls, a former United Nations Trust Territory, was used by the US for 67 nuclear tests at Bikini and Enewetak, and the Kwajalein missile range has been the test range for every long-range missile in the US nuclear arsenal.

Pentagon officials, who have referred to Kwajalein as the "jewel in the crown", estimate that more than four billion dollars has been invested in sophisticated missile tracking equipment and state-of-the-art computers that are currently supporting big-budget, high profile anti-missile tests.

Data gained from tests at Kwajalein -- described by US officials as the only test range where all components of missile defense can be integrated and tested as a package -- will weigh heavily in a decision by President Bill Clinton expected this summer about moving forward with developing a deployable missile defense system for the US.

In October, a missile launched from Kwajalein successfully intercepted and destroyed an incoming mock nuclear warhead from a rocket that had been fired from California, 4,000 miles away.

A second intercept test failed last month, and a third test is scheduled for April at Kwajalein.

To use Kwajalein, the US currently pays landowners nearly 13 million dollars annually.

In addition, US Ambassador Joan Plaisted said the base generates another 17 million dollars in salaries to Marshall Islanders and taxes on American wages.

But the landowners, who live on Ebeye, in an over-crowded slum island three miles from the base, are not satisfied, particularly on learning that the US is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on each test.

"Kwajalein landowners feel theyve been dealt with unfairly by the US and theyve hired us to do something about it," Scott Taylor, a senior attorney in Scruggs firm, said in a telephone interview.

"Were doing a lot of research to determine exactly what Kwajalein is worth and what the US should be paying."

Balos and other landowners believe Scruggs reputation will move their demands forward.

They say until he got involved in tobacco litigation, the US tobacco industry had sustained no significant losses in 50 years. Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

MILSPACE
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