US pledges $13M for reconstruction of Marshall Islands' burned parliament
- Admin
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan and Giff Johnson
The U.S. Department of State has pledged $13 million to the Marshall Islands for the reconstruction of the Nitijela parliament building, which was gutted by fire last month.
According to the Office of the Spokesperson for the department, Washington has partnered with Taiwan to assist the Marshall Islands in rebuilding the Nitijela.
The government of Taiwan earlier pledged over $30 million to fund the building of a new capital.
“This investment reflects the U.S. commitment to helping the (Marshall Islands) rebound from this tragedy,” the Office of the Spokesperson said.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo pledged the U.S. aid during their visit to Majuro over the weekend.
“The deputy secretary expressed solidarity with the people of the Marshall Islands following the Aug. 26 fire that destroyed the RMI’s parliament building and pledged that the Department of State would work with Congress to contribute at least $13 million to quickly rebuild the parliament,” said Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson.
“The deputy secretary also announced the United States would provide a fire truck to the RMI to bolster the response to any future emergencies,” he added.
The reconstruction of the parliament building was among the key items discussed by federal officials during their meeting with Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine and her Cabinet members, along with opposition leaders and private sector representatives.
Although the Marshall Islands parliament structure was mostly still standing following a devastating fire on Aug. 26, the facility was considered a complete loss.
It is to be demolished and rebuilt in a fast-track construction plan, according to President Hilda Heine.
Now the government must develop both a new parliament and capital building located at the same site.
The fire caused irreparable harm to historical documents that were stored in the Nitijela (parliament) library and archives, which were consumed by the fire.
This includes many original documents, including the history of the first Constitutional Convention and the early Nitijela bills from its 1979 establishment forward.
Most bills and resolutions that were adopted over the years are available on the Nitijela website.
Nitijela staff said documents were digitized, but it wasn’t clear how complete the digitization was or if digital records were stored offsite.
“The entire Marshall Islands Revised Code (laws) is saved, including the previous digitized public laws are saved as well,” said Nitijela Legislative Counsel Joe Lomae Aug. 27.
Lomae said he was able to save his computer and external hard drive, which contain many parliament documents.
The fire appears to have started accidentally. There was no report on possible causes of the fire available from government authorities in the immediate aftermath of the fire. And, in any event, the capability for forensic fire investigation is as limited in the Marshall Islands as the fire department.
The one Marshall Islands Police Department fire truck that is located at the downtown police headquarters nearby the parliament has been out of service for months awaiting parts.
If this fire truck had been operational, it could have responded to the fire quickly increasing the possibility of limiting fire damage.
But with no working fire truck downtown, it was left to the Amata Kabua International Airport firefighters to respond. The airport’s one fire engine was called to respond to the fire, leaving the airport without firefighting capability overnight Aug. 25-26.
The airport firefighters arrived over an hour after being called, which given mobilization time and the drive to town was not an unreasonable response time. But by then, the fire was already largely out of control and had already destroyed the archives section as it moved into the main parliament building.
The fire could have started from a section of the building connected to but blocked off from the parliament offices by a partition. Vandals had months ago broken into the outside doors, making use of the space that remained unsecured by government authorities.
This is a location where the homeless and other people who are drinking or doing drugs hang out. People slept and lived in this space connected to the parliament offices.
It is speculated that a small fire in this area may have flared out of control and quickly spread, causing the blaze that destroyed the parliament.
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