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TITLE: Vieques Bombing Exercises Interrupted by Protesters |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: AFP |
DATE: April 29, 2001 |
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The US Navy was for a second successive day forced to interrupt at times its bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques Saturday, after protesters sneaked onto the target range. A Navy spokesman said that despite announcing it would take a break from the exercises Sunday in honor of the first-ever beatification of a Puerto Rican, the Navy would next week continue with the drills, which it deems critically important. "The exercises were delayed due to protest activities," Lieutenant Commander Jeff Gordon, a naval spokesman for the US Southern Command, told AFP. "But now we are continuing with ship-to-shore shelling, and we'll continue shelling through (Saturday) evening." "We will continue next week," he added. "The longer the protest continues, the longer it will take us to finish." The Navy also turned up the heat on Puerto Rico Governor Sila Calderon, accusing her administration of using "hit-and-run tactics" and of waging a propaganda campaign against the Navy's presence on the island of Vieques. But in a conciliatory gesture Saturday, the Navy announced it would suspend the exercises Sunday in honor of the Vatican's first beatification of a Puerto Rican, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Santiago. "It's a very special time for Puerto Rico," Gordon noted, "and the Navy will honor that." Beatification is the second step in the three-step process of being canonized, or recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. As the destroyer USS Peterson continued to lob inert shells onto the target range, about 200 protesters kept vigil at the gate to the area, chanting anti-Pentagon slogans and trying to tear down the fence, according to Navy officials. "We had some people trespassing on the range. They were detained by Navy police. Puerto Rican police did not cooperate," said Gordon, adding that a total of 128 people have been detained on Vieques since the protests began Thursday. Environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr. and actor Edward James Olmos were among those arrested, according to a source at the United States Marshals Service. A sailor was injured at the protest site Friday, after being hit on the head by a bottle, according to Navy officials. Regional naval forces commander Rear Admiral Kevin Green has sent a letter to Calderon asking her to restore to the Vieques range the protection of a tactical squad of the Puerto Rican police, removed following Calderon's election in November. Calderon wants the US Navy to stop using Vieques for training exercises, arguing such activities create too much noise and are detrimental to the health of local residents. But the Navy lashed out at her administration Saturday, accusing of trying to drive a wedge between the US military and the Puerto Rican population. "The Navy has been the victim of a well-organized disinformation campaign for two years," Gordon said. He said the health and human rights arguments used by the Puerto Rican government against the Navy have been "erroneous," adding that the Puerto Rican side had failed to provide the Navy with comprehensive studies to prove the exercises were harmful to the local population. "It's regrettable that so many misinformed people are participating in these irresponsible acts, which endanger their lives and ultimately the lives of sailors that are training for deployment overseas," the spokesman said. Vieques lies off the mainland of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, which is a US commonwealth with its own governor and legislature. Opposition to US naval exercises on Vieques flared in April 1999 after a Marine Corps jet mistakenly bombed a guard post, killing a Puerto Rican. The exercises resumed under a 2000 agreement worked out by then US president Bill Clinton and Pedro Rossello, then-governor of Puerto Rico. The agreement allowed a resumption of training with non-explosive ammunition for three years and called for a referendum on Vieques to decide whether to shut down the training altogether in 2003 or allow a resumption of live-fire exercises. The United States has agreed to provide Vieques 40 million dollars in development aid under the accord. END |