August 22, 2017
TONY A. DEBRUM
February 26, 1945-August 22, 2017
It is with great sadness and a very heavy heart that I announce
that the Marshall Islands lost a national hero today with the passing of our
Climate Ambassador and former Minister Tony deBrum.
Tony passed away peacefully in Majuro, surrounded by his proud
father, as well as his wife and partner in life, Rosalie, and their three
children, ten grandchildren and five great grandchildren – including newly born
Cei'Ena. My thoughts and prayers, as well as those of the Government and the
people of the Marshall Islands, are with them.
Tony’s legacy goes beyond our islands, and will go beyond those of
us that call the Marshall Islands home. He fought for our independence, he
fought against the tyranny of nuclear weapons and for nuclear justice for our
people, and he led the international fight against climate change. The very
existence of the Paris Agreement owes a lot to Tony de Brum. He was a giant of
history, a legend in every meaning of the word, and a custodian of our shared
future.
Born on February 26, 1945 in Tuvalu, Tony grew up in the Marshall
Islands during the twelve-year period of U.S. nuclear testing and, as a young
boy out fishing with his grandfather, witnessed the horrors of the ‘Bravo
Shot’, the largest U.S. nuclear test – more than 1,000 times more powerful than
Hiroshima. After becoming one of the first Marshallese to attend university, he
returned to our island home to play a leading role in the negotiations that
secured the Compact of Free Association with the United States, and ultimately
our membership in the United Nations. Tony remained consistently and deeply
committed to the cause of nuclear justice and global disarmament, and in 2012
was awarded the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Distinguished Peace Leader
Award. In 2015 the Right Livelihood Foundation awarded him the Nuclear-Free
Future Award and the ‘Alternative Nobel’. In 2016 he was voted the Arms Control
Person of the Year and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Tony found himself fighting for our country once again in the
global battle against climate change. Tony’s vision was captured in the Majuro
Declaration for Climate Leadership in 2013, and in 2015 he contributed to the
formation of the High Ambition Coalition. His tireless efforts on the world
stage were instrumental in securing the Paris Agreement.
On this day that Tony passed, we also held our final traditional
funeral ceremony for Minister Mattlan Zackhras who passed away less than two
weeks ago. I am certain that Tony will join Mattlan in looking over the
Marshall Islands. While our nation may have lost two of our finest men, and the
Earth two of its fiercest champions, the best thing we can all do to honour
their legacies is to keep up the battle for our future – to which they
dedicated their lives. We now carry their torch.
Tony made our island home and the rest of the world safer, and more
peaceful. And for that a grateful nation and planet says kommol tata. May he
rest in the peace that he fought so hard for.
Ilo kautiej,
Hilda C. Heine, Ed. D
President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands