Postings Archive Folder 2

22 May to 25 June, 2000







Vieques Report
Tuesday, 6 June, 2000

Last week was one of constant action against the Navy presence in Vieques. Last Monday, Memorial Day, 30 Viequense Veterans United for Peace, turned in their war medals before the Veterans Monumento at the Capitol building in San Juan, as part of a protest ceremony organized by the Puerto Rico chapter of Veterans for Peace.

In the early morning hours of Thursday, 1 June, 26 people - mostly women from Vieques - headed toward the Navy´s bombing range. They arrived in fishing boats at a beach on the North coast and walked for two until reaching the Yayi beach area, where the ecumenical chapel - part of the civil disobedience camps - was located. There the women placed 13 black crosses in memory of Vieques women who died of cancer or other sicknesses related to the environmental contamination produced by US Navy activities. Directed by Nilda Medina, founding member of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques and leader of the Justice and Peace Camp, the group, together with 6 members of the Puerto Rican press, fulfilled their mission, passing undetected into the Navy restricted zone, penetrating the bombing range, carrying out a protest ceremony before finally being arrested.

The action was carryed out to denounce Navy plans (announced in the press) to detonate, that very day, an undetermined quantity of burried and dispersed unexploted ordnance.

That day the Navy did not even detonate a firecracker!

Over half of the group was comprised of Viequense women. The expedition also inclueded Lolita Lebron and Rosa Meneses Albizu Campos. During a celebration at Justice and Peace Camp that night, after the protester were liberated at Navy Station Roosevelt Roads in the town of Ceiba (the group had been transferred to NSRR early in the morning following their arrest on Vieques) - several Vieques women expressed their desire to return soon to the restricted zone to continue the process of relcaiming what belongs to the people of Vieques by natural right.

Tito de Jesús (known as Tito Kayay) was the only member of the group not liberated from detention because he refused to offer any information during the legal process. Yesterday, 5 June, Tito was released.

On Saturday, 3 June, we received a delegation of the 54 arrested on 13 May. We marched together from the dock to the Public Square to hold a press conference. Graciany Miranda Marchan (ex President of the PR Bar Association), one of the 54, said the group had travelled to Vieques to openly challenge the court order prohibiting them from returning to Vieques.

That Saturday night, during the vigil that´s held every Saturday, the activity was dedicated to all those arrested - the 21 in 1979, the more than 200 this past 4 May, the 54 on the 13th of May and the 26 arrested on 1 June - as well as the many who will be arrested in the following days, weeks and months. Over 250 people participated in the vigil that inclued a series of militant piquets in front of the gates to Camp García.

Sunday, June 4th, on the morning ferry we recieved Ramón Figueroa who brought a gigantic Vieques flag that will travel to NY to participate in the 11 June parade in the Big Apple. About 50 people from Vieques and the main island marched with the flag to the town square to hold a ceremony and the blessing of the flag by the Parrish Priest and the Pastor of the Methodist Church. A 4 foot tall Virigen of Peace for Vieques, sculpted in wood (cedro) by Puerto Rican artesan, Celestino Avilés, also received the blessing of the church officials and was warmly received by the people of Vieques during the ceremony.

The people of Vieques are on constant alert and in constant protest. Our actions inside the Navy´s restricted zone are the topic of a constant process of conspiration and dialogue amongst the grass roots organizations here.

We are all clear in our belief that
GOD DID NOT BRING US HERE TO TURN BACK,
S-HE BROUGHT US HERE
TO TAKE POSSESSION OF THE LAND S-HE GAVE US


Robert L. Rabin Siegal

¡US NAVY OUT OF VIEQUES!



6 June, 2000
Press Release

The struggle of the people of Vieques received an important message of support from the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Buddhism. The message came in response to a petition for support from Hector Rosario, a Puerto Rican graduate student at Dartmouth in New Hampshire in coordination with the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques. The text of the short message reads as follows:

"******************

H.H. the Dalai Lama

MESSAGE

I am concerned by the terrible effects on people, animals and plants of Vieques, an island in the archipelago of Puerto Rico, as a result of the military exercises conducted on the island. I am told that because of the pollution from these military exercises the cancer rate in Vieques is much higher than on the main island. I therefore support the action of the people of Vieques in protesting against such military exercises.

May 8, 2000

This important message of solidarity from the maximum leader of the Buddhist world, adds to a long list of religious leaders representing all the spiritual tendencies that have expressed support for the struggle for peace on Vieques and for the action of all Puerto Ricans to end the military presence on the Island of Vieques.



This is a late posting, but in records a significant event.

CONVERSATION WITH DR. DOUG ROKKE
MILITARY SCIENTIST, SPECIALIST IN DEPLETED URANIUM

VIEQUES, DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPONS AND MILITARY CONTAMINATION

WEDNESDAY, 7 JUNE, 2000
7:30 PM
FOUNDATION MANRIQUE CABRERA
MUÑOZ RIVERA AVE. # 602
HATO REY
(FRONT OF JUDICIAL CENTER)

FOR MORE INFO CALL CARIBBEAN PROJECT FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE 722-1640

¡FUERA LA MARINA DE VIEQUES!


6.11 p.m. ET (2222 GMT) June 6, 2000
By Chris Hawley, Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Environmental activists clashed with a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission official Tuesday over cleanup plans that could leave buried some of the radioactive depleted uranium rounds mistakenly fired on the Navy's Vieques bombing range.

For the rest of the article, click on: Uranium.

Nueva acción de desobediencia civil \\ New Civil Disobedience Action
10 June, 2000


More protesters enter Navy´s restricted zone in Vieques

At 9:45 PM on Friday, 9 June, 14 protesters against the military presence on Vieques, entered the restricted zone of Camp García. The group, composed of Puerto Rican professionals, arrived at one of the target areas use for light artillery practice where they wrote messages on the structures and placed several Puerto Rican flags. At 6:00 AM on Saturday, the group commuicated with the Peace and Justice Camp in Vieques to inform they had completed that part of the mission and had begun to walk toward the gate to Camp García, using one of the Navys security patrol roads. At 6:45 AM the group called again to inform that arrests had begun.

This civil disobedience group includes an environmental engineers, a Viequense civil engineer, an ex Dean of the Unniversity of Puerto Rico, an ex Director of the Adminstration of the Courts of Puerto Rico, planners, members of the Hostosiano National Congress and university student leaders.

The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques applauds this group of Puerto Rican brothers and sisters for this action in which they risk their liberty in favor of Peace for Vieques. This entrance into the restricted zone represents the continuation of a strategy designed to cause a continuos problem for the Navy, making it impossible to carry out normal activity in the bombing area.

For more information please contact:

Héctor Pesquera (NY) 1-212-318-5905
Charlo Meléndez 462-6573 or 755-6573
Robert Rabin 741-0716


Arresto en Vieques \\ Vieques Arrest
11 June, 2000

PRESS RELEASE


University Professor victim of stroke enters Navy restricted zone in Vieques.

University professor and lawyer, Dr. Arsenio Suárez Franceshci was arrested Sunday, 11 June at 4:00 PM when he entered the US Navy´s restricted zone in Vieques. Suárez Franceshci said shortly before entering Navy land that his civil disobedience action was in solidarity with Rubén Berriós (PIP), who will be processed for a similar action in the Federal Court in San Juan tomorrow, 12 June.

Dr. Suárez, Professor of Humanities at the University of Puerto Rico´s Río Piedras Campus, is recovering from a recent cerebral stroke, which left him partially incapable of arm and leg movement as well as affecting his speech.

This new entrance into the military zone in Vieques is the continuation of civil disobedience actions to protest the horrible effects of the US Navy´s presence and activities on the civilian population of the island municipality.

Contactos: Abderramán Brenes La Roche Bpr. 759 -1255 un. 514-4646
Robert Rabin 741-0716 o 375-0525


Vieques Update
19 June, 2000

Incursions into the military zone and arrests of our people, screaming a military vehicles and personnel in the streets of our community, parades, internation tribunals are part of the activities organized by the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques together with compañer@s from Vieques and the main island over the past two weeks. From 6 to 9 June, Dr. Doug Rokke, ex Director of the DOD´s Uranium 238 ("depleted uranium") was in Vieques and in Puerto Rico as part of the international campaign to outlaw these radioactive weapons. Rokke participated on Channell 28 (Vieques TV) about the horrible health effects of uranium 238 (DU), for civilians and for soldiers in the area where it is used.

At the Museum Fort Count Mirasol in Vieques, the scientist from the US gave a detailed account about DU weapons and the long history of Defense Department irresponsability with their own personnel and civilians in terms of health effects of DU. Rokke emphasized that the dangers of contamination and the serious health crisis of the Viequenses are not related only to uranium, but to the multiplicity of dangerous chemical componentes from over half a century of bombing with conventional and non conventional weapons on the Eastern end of Vieques. Rokke showed visuals of the air transportation of uranium oxide, clearly demonstrating how the contaminants in the impact zone easily reach the civilian sector riding on the constant breezes that move precisely from East to West.

On the main island, the Caribbean Project for Peace and Justice organized several meetings with Rokke and the scientific and medical community of Puerto Rico and a Press Conference at the PR Bar Association. After several days in Puerto Rico, Rokke travelled to New York to continue the information campaign against uranium 238 weapons used on Vieques and to participatein the Puerto Rican Day Parade, dedicated to the Peace on Vieques.

Aproximately 150 people from Vieques travelled to NY for the Parade on 11 June. The largest contingent was the 40 or so members of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques and the Peace and Justice Camp. Nilda Medina, Norma Morales and María Elena Navarro, members of the CRDV, worked for several months to coordinate the participation of the group to assure a strong representation of Viequenses in struggle during the NY parade.

Ismael Guadalupe, representing the CRDV, was the key speaker at a special dinner by the War Resisters League, US pacifist organization that recognized the work of the CRDV awarding the Vieques group its annual peace prize. Ismael also formed part of the jury in the International Peoples Tribunal held on June 10th that considered war crimes committed in the war against Yugoslavia. During the proceedings, Ismael brought up the issue of Vieques and received a standing ovation from the 500 participants representing 11 countries.

The following week was equally productive. We received a great number of solidarity messages from different parts of the world ? the Phillipines, Okinawa, US, Panamá, Hawaii ? and commitments of support and participation in civil disobedience actions from a large number of Puerto Ricans.

On Tuesday, those arrested on 1 June met here with lawyers Linda Backiel and Rosa Meneses Albizu Campos. Lolita Lebron, one of the arrested, also participated in the meeting to discuss future legal strategy.

On Thursday, 15 June, the technical-legal team of Robert Kennedy, Jr., arrived on Vieques. Kennedy directs a team of envronmental and legal organizations ? the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Puerto Rico Legal Defense Fund and the Environmental Litigation Clinic of Pace University ? that prepares a case to end Navy bombing and force the Navy to decontaminate Vieques. Kennedy arrived Saturday to meet with community organizations related to the legal case.

Friday night, 37 Puerto Rican professionals, including university professors, publiscists, sports writers and union leaders, entered into the Navy´s restricted area to denounce the Navy´s presence and intention to continue bombing. The group participated earlier in a special vigil at Peace and Justice Camp, before entering into military zone and were arrested around 3:00 in the morning. After being transferred to Roosevelt Roads, the group was released later in the afternoon.

Saturday evening, Kennedy and his team participated in the vigil at Peace and Justice Camp, in front of the Navy´s installation here ? Camp García. More than 400 Viequenses assisted the vigil that included the music of Vieques Libre, a new Vieques band that plays PLENA. Kennedy and his team left on Sunday after meetings with the plaintiffs in the case being developed.

Robert L. Rabin Siegal
US NAVY, OUT OF VIEQUES!
¡FUERA LA MARINA DE VIEQUES!

                Vieques bombardeo-bombing
                Mon, 19 Jun 2000 13:11:45 -0100
                PRESS RELEASE


The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) energetically denounced the intention of the Navy to continue bombing the island municipality. Nilda Medina, spokeswoman for the Committee, said there is ample scientific evidence about the terrible effects from bombing / with whatever type of bombs / because of the dispersion into the air of contaminants that move directly to the civilian sector from the bombing area. All the scientific information indicates that the resumption of bombing will increase the cancer and death of our people.

According to communication received from the Planning Board of PR, dated 14 June and sent to Nilda Medina, of the CRDV, the Navy plans to carry out exercises from 2 to 6 June that will include firing 600 projectiles from ships and 830 bombs from jets into the bombing area at the East end of Vieques. The document, signed buy the Secretario of the Planning Board, Max Vidal, indicates that the Navy plans to begin bombing approximately the 21st June, 2000.

The announcement by the Navy about bombing practices coincided with several actions of civil disobedience by dozens of Puerto Ricans, including professionals, sports writers and doctors who entered into the military restricted area. The Navy notification came at the same time Robert Kennedy, Jr. arrived in Vieques with his legal team from the Natural Resources Defense Council, to meet with community leaders about the court case Kennedy directs aimed at stopping the bombing and forcing the Navy to do a thorough clean up.


Subject:   Vieques bombardeo / Vieques bombing
Date:     Tue, 20 Jun 2000 09:35:04 -0100
From:     Robert Rabin - Nilda Medina

Viequenses acuse officials of agencies responsable for environmental and health protection in Puerto Rico of aiding the Navy in the destruction of natrual resources and the attack against life that will result from the US Navy´s practices announced for the following several days.

In documents from the Puerto Rico Planning Board, obtained by the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) through environmental advisor Sara Peisch (Environmental Action Center of PR), military officiales admit that the bombing they hope to do this week will have a negative impact on beaches, dunes, coral reefs and adjacent waters. The document also describes the problems with the inert bombs that skip on land and end up in the water.

According to the official documents, the Navy plans to drop 130,000 pounds of bombs on Vieques during maneuvers that should begin this week. Rear Admiral J.K. Moran offered the following description of the projectiles to be fired at Vieques:

600 rounds from ships; 400 bombs of 25 pounds; 30 laser guided 50 lb. projectiles; 120 bombs of up to 1000 pounds.

Nilda Medina, spokesperson for the CPRDV, commented that "...all Puerto Ricans should denounce the intentions of the US Navy to launch more than 125 thousand pounds of bombs during upcoming practices. Each bomb means more contamination for our people, more cancer, more death. We don´t understand how the Puerto Rican government can permit this genocide against our town. The Special Commission on Vieques, created by the Governor, described in detail the horrible effects on our health from bombing, whether with live or inert bombs."

The people of Vieques demand that the Governmental agencies responsable for environmental and health protection do not permit the the Navy to continue the destrction of Vieques.


Subject:   Comunicado Entrada Zona de Tiro / Protesters enter bombing zone
Date:     Thu, 22 Jun 2000 07:38:12 -0100
From:     Robert Rabin - Nilda Medina

21 June, 2000
Press Release

Two groups enter into Navy´s restricted zone

A group of around twenty protestors penetrated early in the morning, the US Navy´s bombing range on Vieques, where they will serve as human shields to block the resumption of bombing on the island. The group is guided by a Viequense with much experience in the resistence against the US Navy presence and activities on the island municipality.

The group consists of members of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques and individuals from the main island of Puerto Rico, from all sectors of civilian society who have joined the cause of Peace for Vieques.

The group entered the bombing range through an area of thick and thorny vegetation to avoid being detected. The are prepared with water and other supplies to remain in the restricted zone for as long as possible.

The members of the group will disperse throughout the bombing range to create a more serious obstacle for bombing and to make arrests more difficult.

Simultaneously, fifty representatives of the Pro Vieques Movement ? labor, cooperativist and religious leaders ? entered the bombing zone with a group of Vieques fishermen, under the direction of Carlos Ventura. This group avoided military security all night and finally walked into the area of targets where they carried out a series of ecumenical ceremonies dedicated to Peace for Vieques.

The purpose of this action was to dramatize the serious health concerns for the people of Vieques in the face of Navy announcements they will fire thousands of bombs on the East end of the island in the next few days. Ventura as well as labor leader Wilfredo López, explained by radio from the bombing area, that the struggle to end the military presence will continue until there is peace in Vieques.

These two groups bring to around 200 the number of those arrested for entering into the Navy´s restriced area since the removal and arrest of over 200 people from 15 civil disobedience camps here on the 4th of May.


Subject:   Más arrestos en Vieques // More protesters arrested in Vieques
Date:     Sun, 25 Jun 2000 05:26:59 -0100

25 de junio de 2000
COMUNICADO DE PRENSA

VIEQUENSES CONTINUE ENTERING INTO NAVY RESTRICTED LANDS


At 3:00 AM on Sunday morning, June 25, a contingent of federal agents and military police arrested thirty six people - nine women and 27 men - who had penetrated the US Navy´s restricted area on the Island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The protesters entered the prhohibited area Saturday night to denounce the Navy´s plan to carry out a massive bombing practice with 130,000 pounds of bombs to be dropped on Vieques in the next few days.

The entrance into the militar zone is part of a coordinated campaign by the Vieques community with support from solidarity organizations on the main island of Puerto Rico to block Navy operations on the island municipality.

Hundreds of people from the main island and a larger number of Viequenses participated in several protest activities Saturday, June 24th. Spokesmen for the National Hostos Congress (a coalition of PR Independence forces) said they would continue mobilizing support for local community organizations facing the Navy threat to resume bomging exercises for the first time here since April, 1999.

The arrests took place hours after a massive protest by more than 500 people from Vieques at the Peace and Justice Resistence Camp, located in front of the Navy´s Camp García gate. The Vieques Youth United group, in coordination with the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) organized the vigil that with the active participation of hundreds of young people and representatives of all sectors of Vieques´ population.

Nilda Medina, spokeswoman for the CRDV, informed that planned, peaceful civil disobedience actions will continue in the Navy´s restricted area, to dramatize the horrible impact of Navy bombing on the environment and the health of our people and to block the resumption of militar maneuvers. "The cruel attack by the Navy against our island and people obligate us to take ations in our own defense. It is our duty and right to defend ourselves against the genocidal policy practiced by the US Navy against the people of Vieques," stated Medina.



To continue browsing through the archive,
click on the "folder" below:


Dispatch Archive





Back to the Vieques Libre Main Page