On International Day Against Nuclear Tests, WCC shares perspective from Kiribati

What was the focus of your visit? 

Prove: The visit focused on the mission and witness of the WCC’s member church, the Kiribati Uniting Church, and on the legacy of nuclear weapons tests carried out by Britain and the United States on Kiritimati (Christmas) Island – now part of Kiribati – in the 1950s and 1960s.

Would you share some basic background on Kiribati? 

Prove: The Republic of Kiribati (pronounced “Kiribas”) in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean, is comprised of over 30 atolls and islands with a total land area of 811 km2 dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 of ocean. The islands' spread straddles the equator and the 180th meridian, making Kiribati the only country in the world located in all four hemispheres. The total population is about 130,000, with more than half living on Tarawa atoll.

Kiribati gained its independence from the United Kingdom and became a sovereign state in 1979. The capital, South Tarawa, now the most populated area, consists of a number of islets connected by a series of causeways, with the sea rarely more than a hundred metres either side of the road that runs the length of South Tarawa, and with the highest point only three metres above sea level.

What are some of the current challenges for Kiribati?

Prove: Kiribati is one of the world’s lowest-lying, most food-insecure, and climate-vulnerable nations, and South Tarawa is one of the most overpopulated places in the world relative to its land area. Kiribati also finds itself in the middle of current geopolitical struggles for influence in the Pacific region.

What are some key roles of the Kiribati Uniting Church?

Prove: The Kiribati Uniting Church is the second largest church in Kiribati (after the Roman Catholic Church), with 145 parishes across the archipelago, and 269 pastors, the majority of whom are female. It also plays a major role in secondary education in Kiribati. While the government operates only three secondary schools, the Kiribati Uniting Church runs six, and the Roman Catholic Church nine. Together with the Roman Catholic Church and the Assemblies of God, the Kiribati Uniting Church is a founding member of the National Council of Churches in Kiribati. More recently, the Kiribati Uniting Church has supported the establishment of the Kiribati Interfaith Resilience Fellowship with the Muslim and Bahai communities as well as the other churches of the nation. Among other social concerns, Kiribati Uniting Church moderator Rev. Tateti Tauma highlighted increasing alcohol abuse, Kiribati’s dependence on imported food, and the increasing salinity of Kiribati’s very thin freshwater lens due to rising sea levels.

The Kiribati Uniting Church’s Tanginebu Theological College is the only theological college in Micronesia, and offers certificates, diploma, and bachelor of divinity courses, with 10 faculty members.  The college is accredited by the South Pacific Association of Theological Schools. However, the college is struggling to find resources for the renovation of its classrooms and other infrastructure, which are in critical need of repair and rebuilding.

What is the history of nuclear testing in the region? 

Prove: An almost forgotten part of the colonial history of the region is the nuclear testing programmes carried out by the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Between May 1957 and September 1958, the British government tested nine thermonuclear weapons on Kiritimati/Christmas Island in “Operation Grapple,” heralding its entry into the “nuclear club.” Then, in 1962, the UK cooperated with the US on "Operation Dominic,” undertaking a further 31 detonations on Kiritimati. Astonishingly, it appears that no independent publicly-available scientific assessment of the environmental and health impacts of these nuclear tests has ever been carried out. However, stories shared by just one counterpart originally from Kiritimati regarding the incidence of brain, thyroid, and breast cancer among members of his own family and immediate friends provided compelling anecdotal evidence of a cluster of cancers typically associated with exposure to ionizing radiation.

When Kiribati gained its independence in 1979, Kiritimati was included in its territory. The most far-flung part of the archipelago, Kiritimati is over 3,000 km from Tarawa – a four and a half hour flight.

Perhaps because of a combination of this vast distance, the length of time since the tests were carried out, and the lack of information given to the local people at the time or since, most people in Kiribati are completely unaware of this history. Even a government minister expressed astonishment at learning of this aspect of her own nation’s heritage. However, in order to improve the country’s food security and reduce its reliance on imports, the government is promoting agricultural development on Kiritimati – by far the largest landmass in the archipelago – and even considering relocating the capital there.

Thus the people of Kiribati face unknown threats resulting from the legacy of nuclear tests carried out by the UK and the USA during the colonial period in the region. This story is sadly familiar from other places in the Pacific and elsewhere – such as Maohi Nui/French Polynesia and the Marshall Islands – where nuclear weapon states chose to conduct tests of the most catastrophically, indiscriminately, and inter-generationally destructive weapons ever devised by human beings, far from their own populations but to the terrible and ongoing detriment of the local indigenous peoples of those places.

The responsible nuclear weapon states should disclose the evidence they hold of the impacts of these tests in such locations, fully compensate the victims, and remediate the harms done then and to future generations.

More photos from the WCC visit to Kiribati

WCC's work on Arms control and disarmament

WCC member churches in Kiribati