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Subject: [mobilize-globally] Navy Won't Bomb on Vieques for Now
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[ndn-aim] [NativeNews] Navy Won't Bomb on Vieques for Now
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Thu, 1 Mar 2001 23:55:58 EST
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Sent by Senior Staff...............thanks
Subj: [NativeNews] Navy Won't Bomb on Vieques for Now
Date: 3/1/2001 9:38:44 PM Mountain Standard Time
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Senior Staff)
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from Maureen..thanks!
Navy Won't Bomb on Vieques for Now
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:27 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Navy-Vieques.html?searchpv=aponline
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration suspended Navy bombing on
the
Puerto Rican island of Vieques Thursday while negotiators pursue a
permanent
solution to the bitter dispute over U.S. military use of the island.
The decision, revealed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, is a
concession to the new Puerto Rican government, which wants the Navy to
withdraw entirely from the training range it has used on Vieques for
decades.
The Navy has resisted, saying Vieques is vital to training for its
Atlantic
fleet.
Rumsfeld discussed the matter with Puerto Rican Gov. Sila Calderon on
Tuesday.
On Vieques, the decision was cheered by opponents of the Navy's
presence.
``This triumph is a momentary triumph and not an eternal victory,''
said
anti-Navy activist Ismael Guadalupe. ``We need to redouble our efforts
now to
try to transform this suspension into a halt to Navy bombing on the
island
forever.''
``What we want is the Navy to leave and give us back our land,'' he
said.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., a virulent critic of the
Navy for
persisting in its use of the range, greeted Rumsfeld's announcement
with
cautious optimism but urged the Pentagon to stay off the island
forever. ``We
appreciate what's happening,'' Serrano said, ``but we hope that this
becomes
a permanent cease-fire on the entire island and that we can then begin
the
long road to helping the people of Vieques get their lives together
again.''
The U.S. territory's delegate in the House, Anibal Acevedo Vila,
called the
decision ``a step forward on the right path, although it isn't the
final
victory we hope for.'' He said it ``is a clear sign that the Vieques
issue is
starting to be discussed as one of human rights and health.''
Navy Capt. Mike Brady, a spokesman at U.S. Atlantic Fleet headquarters
at
Norfolk, Va., said the decision to suspend training on Vieques affects
the
USS Enterprise aircraft carrier battle group and a Marine Corps
amphibious
ready group led by the USS Kearsarge.
It is not a permanent halt to training on Vieques, although that could
be the
eventual outcome.
``The battle group and the amphibious ready group are expected to
receive an
adequate level of training to deploy'' as scheduled in late April,
Brady
said. They will use the waters off Puerto Rico to do other training,
but they
will not be able to use Vieques for practice bombing and naval gunfire
training.
In seeking to retain the Vieques training range, the Navy has argued
that it
is the only means of providing the training to ensure that battle
groups
begin their overseas deployments fully ready for combat.
After meeting with Rumsfeld in the Pentagon on Tuesday, Calderon told
reporters that she asked him to delay Navy training exercises on
Vieques
until he reviews a study suggesting noise from the bombing has caused
heart
disease among residents.
Asked about the state of discussions with Calderon, Rumsfeld told
reporters
Thursday, ``The Navy is going to proceed with some aspects of their
training
but not using the inner range, pending the discussions that are taking
place.'' His term ``inner range'' refers to the bombing range and
other
training areas on the island, other officials said.
Rumsfeld would not comment further.
The Navy calls Vieques the ``crown jewel'' of its Atlantic training
sites,
saying exercises there are vital to national defense because they
uniquely
combine air, sea and land maneuvers that cannot be done elsewhere.
The Navy owns two-thirds of Vieques and its bombing range covers 900
acres --
under 3 percent of the island. It used live bombs until two went
astray in a
1999 practice and killed a civilian guard on the bombing range.
Bombing was halted and protesters occupied the range for more than a
year
before the Navy swept them out in May.
Under an agreement reached in January 2000 between then-President
Clinton and
then-Gov. Pedro Rossello, training with inert bombs instead of live
ones
resumed and Vieques' 9,400 resident were to decide in a referendum
next
November whether the Navy should stay or leave.
The agreement, which Calderon considers invalid, says that if
islanders vote
to expel the Navy, it would have to leave by May 2003.
Reprinted under the Fair Use
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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