By Dennis Camire
Advertiser Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - A National Park Service official told a Senate panel yesterday that the agency backs a proposal for a memorial to Hansen's disease patients exiled to Moloka'i's Kalaupapa Peninsula.

"We certainly support the purpose of the bill, and we acknowledge the importance of the memorial," said Lynn Scarlett, deputy secretary of the Interior Department, which has jurisdiction over the park service.

The memorial, to be in the Kalaupapa National Historical Park, would list the names of about 8,000 people who were taken from their families between 1866 and 1969 and isolated on the peninsula because of fear of leprosy, now known as Hansen's disease. About 6,700 of them were buried in unmarked graves there.

Scarlett said the agency preferred the memorial be in the Kalaupapa settlement, where patients continue to live today, instead of at Kalawao, a more remote location in the park where the first exiles were sent.

Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawai'i, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources National Parks Subcommittee, asked if the park service had made a firm decision on the memorial's location.

Scarlett said the park service is still open to discussion about the location, although it believes the Secretary of the Interior should have final approval on the site.

"We would very much like to work with you on it," she said. "I do want to affirm the park service ... has always had concerns about public access and that clearly has resulted in their having some thoughts on it."

The park service also wants the Ka 'Ohana O Kalaupapa, a group of Hansen's disease patients and their relatives and friends, to pay for the memorial. The service also wants the Secretary of the Interior to have final approval of the monument's design, size and inscriptions.

The House approved similar legislation Feb. 14, and Akaka said he hopes to move the bill through the full committee quickly.

"The memorial has strong local support and I am not aware of any opposition or controversy," he said. "We are happy to hear from the administration that they are willing to work with us on designating a place (for the memorial)."