the Marshallese population working at the
base at Kwajalein had grown, and the conditions in the makeshift labour camp on
Kwajalein islet were such that the U.S. Navy administering the atoll at the
time decided to relocate these Islanders to nearby Ebeye, an islet only three
islands to the north of Kwajalein and accessible by a short boat ride or walk
over the reef at low tide. Nuclear refugees from the atolls irradiated by the
American tests were also moved to Ebeye, and in 1964, when the United States
initiated its Anti-ballistic missile testing program with the Nike-Zeus program
in Kwajalein Atoll, authorities moved also the remaining Marshall Islanders who
lived scattered on their land throughout the atoll to the small shantytown of
Ebeye which had been erected with plywood housing by American contractors. This
relocation from the Mid-Atoll Corridor would eventually precipitate into the
numerous landowner resistance movements by the people of Kwajalein Atoll, who
deeply resented the continuing American occupation without their consent and
without proper compensation.
With the end of the Cold War and a decreased threat of
nuclear attack, many defence programs were cancelled in the early 1990s.
However, overcrowding on Ebeye remains a major problem, and continuing military
operations and various launch or re-entry tests perpetuate the dislocation of
Marshall Islanders from their small islands throughout Kwajalein Atoll. The
United States Army Kwajalein Atoll test site does not provide logistical
support to Ebeye or Ennibur islets.
21st century
In 2008, a new government was voted into power in the Republic
of the Marshall Islands, with Litokwa Tomeing as President and Tony deBrum as
