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TITLE: Vieques Bombing To Resume April 27 |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: AP |
DATE: April 21, 2001 |
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The U.S. Navy has placed public notices around the small Puerto Rican island of Vieques, notifying residents that its bombing practices here will resume April 27. The bombing exercises will last for three days, said the notices, which were put up in government buildings, parks. The announcements are required by an accord reached between the United States and Puerto Rico so that local fishermen do not stray into waters around the Navy's practice range during the bombing. Local Anti-Navy Activist Ismael Guadalupe called the notices, which were posted Friday, ``irreverent and insensitive,'' because they were put up one day after the anniversary of a fatal accident that killed islander David Sanes Rodriguez. The security guard was killed on the range in 1999 by two off-target Navy bombs. Since the accident, anger at the bombing intensified in Puerto Rico and protesters occupied the range for about a year until they were forcibly removed by U.S. marshals last May. The Navy's practice range occupies less than 3 percent of the island's land area and the U.S. military says the range offers a unique, isolated environment where the Navy can practice amphibious invasions, ship-to-shore and air-to-shore shelling. The last bombing exercises were held in mid-December. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had paused exercises on Vieques in March to allow time for negotiations with Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon, who has demanded an immediate end to the bombing. Calderon says the bombing causes health problems among islanders, allegations the Navy vehemently denies. END |