Address to the Okinawan Audience at Kadena Community Center, July 20, 2000,
immediately after "Human Chain Surrounding Kadena Air Base!" Action
Messages of Solidarity from Vieques
Luz Maldonado, Vieques Women's Association
Good evening everyone. I am very pleased and proud to be here. I am glad to be invited to Okinawa.
It was not easy for me to come all the way here from Vieques. However I heard that the people of Okinawa is suffering. I now know that your pain is same as the pain of our people in Vieques. The struggle of Okinawan people will travel with me to Vieques, and to all over the world forever.
With the help of God, I hope you will never suffer from what my people is sufferingcregarding cancer. There is a small girl, who has cancer. She is only two years old, and has uranium in her body.
I have been arrested twice for civil disobedience entering the Navy base. I do not regret because this is a struggle for everyone in the world, even if I have to go to jail. I hope someday people of Okinawa will start civil disobedience because I strongly believe that it is the only way to get the US Marines out of Okinawa.
Please do not give up. Keep struggling, as we are in Vieques. Then I am convinced that the militarism will disappear from the world. Thank you.
Carlos Zenon, President, Vieques Fishermen's Association
Good evening. My name is Carlos Zenon. I am a president of Vieques Fishermen's Association. Today you are going to hear a story of what you are very familiar with, because what the United States navy is doing in Vieques right now is not so different from what they are doing here in Okinawa.
The island of Vieques was invaded by the United States Navy in 1940. They made bases on the both sides of the island moving the people from the areas. They moved us and put to the central area like a refuge camp. Now people have to live in the center of the island in between the navy bases. It was when I was four years old. The Navy came to destroy our house with bulldozers. My mother was telling me not to forget what happened that day. My family had to move and all the people had to move from the both sides of the island, because they needed land for the national defense.
We have no peace since then. The navy took the western portion of the island and the eastern portion of the island. In the western portion of the island they keep 175,000 tons of live ammunition. In the Eastern portion of the island they bomb the island. So here we are right in the middle of the island. They used to bring thousands of marines. Lots of women were raped, people were killed on the streets and we saw street fight and broken marines. No peace at all. Probably they did the same thing here in Okinawa too. We thought the navy would take the whole island because we did not know how to defend ourselves against the U.S. navy.
They kept abusing the people of Vieqes until 1978. I was a grown up by that time. They invited NATO forces to do exercises and stay control the whole areas of the island. Even before that time they were already destroying fishing industry. So we fishermen knew that if we let them go on with the exercises with NATO, the fishing industry would disappear from the island.
When we received the notice of U.S. navy-NATO joint exercises for 28 days. I, as a president of Fishermen's Association, I went to talk to the commander of navy in Vieques. I explained to him, "If you are going to do the exercises 28 days in a row what's going to happen to fishermen?" "Listen. We have paid millions of dollars for the navy forces in Vieques. You must have food stamps provided. We go on with the exercises." So I said "You are going to have troubles if you go on with the exercises." Imagine, a fisherman of the island of Vieques going to the commander of U.S. navy and telling that. He laughed right on my face. I went back and told the fishermen, "If we let them do the exercises they will take the place as they told us. Then the fishing industry will be destroyed. We will not be able to support our family. We will be forced to emigrate out from the island, like many people had to since the navy arrived the island."
The exercises was supposed to take place on 7 o'clock in the morning, February 6,1978, with the amphibious landing. I think Okinawan people know what the amphibious landing is. That's how they came here during the World War ‡U. By 8 o'clock in the morning I had forty wooden boats in the area to stop the amphibious landing.
I don't know how many fishermen are here tonight. What fishermen do is to use ropes in water. We attach ropes onto rocks for buoys so that we can find traps underwater later. If ships come by it will cut the ropes with propellers then we do not know where the traps are. We lose everything. They destroy everythingclots of money. That's how the navy destroys our fishing industry. Ropes are cut with ship propellers. So you might wonder how we stopped the navy landing, because everybody thinks that the U.S. navy is untouchable. We used big chains attached the end of the ropes, just like how they destroy our fishing traps. When they cut the ropes the chains will go into the propellers, stopping the engine. That's how we stopped them from landing.
It was a historical day for us. We were determined that if somebody decides to fight against U.S. navy we could do more. So we decided to stop their bombing exercises. It was the first day of our quest.
Stopping bombing was a risk for us. But we had to. Because the bombing contaminates the water, affecting the health of people. People get sick, getting cancer. Civilians were dying. We have manatees, an endangered species, a similar mammal to dugongs in Okinawa. But we felt that we the humans are endangered species too. We had to protect our land. We go near the impact area where they dropping the bombs, by boat. Jump off the boat and run into the impact area. When they see civilians go into the area from the observation booth, they call immediately to stop bombing. Because they know we bring press people with us every time we enter the area. We bring them because they will probably kill us if the press is not there. The U.S. navy can't kill us with the eyes of the press.
From 1978 to 1983 we stopped the bombing the impact area for 38 times in a row. In1979 twenty-nine people were arrested and sent to different jails in the states. One of them got killed in the jail. In 1980 they decided to send me to three different jails in the U.S. because of the struggle in Vieques against navy bombings. Was that a great price for peace? If you want your people to live in peace, you have to pay for it. They sent me to a jail but the only sin I had was to defend my people to live in peace. I was not discouraged at all being in jail. Here I am today. Fisherman can teach you how to stop bombing.
April 19, 1999 they killed a Vieques man. They say that it was an accident, but it was not. So we decided to go into the impact area, made 15 camps. Since then the navy had not been able to drop a bomb.
Two weeks ago, navy announced of reopening the training. They brought George Washington, one of the largest military ship navy has. Fishermen in Vieques did not allow, not even one more bomb. I brought 5 boats to the impact area, went into right inside there. We stopped bombing. We stopped George Washington from bombing the island. Because the 15 camps were successfully stopping the bombings, they sent federal marshals and some marines to the island of Vieques to agitate the camps. They arrested 240 people. They took them to federal court in San Juan in Puerto Rico.
Now I want you to listen very carefully what we've done next because this is the way we deal with the United States navy. They took 240 people out but two days later we brought another 300 people into the base for camps. Every time they arrest 50, 100 or 75, we took about the amount of people into the camps. Right now 2000 marines are guarding the fences. But all they know is to kill or shoot people. They don't know how to fight in peace. They don't know how to deal with in this kind of struggle, the peaceful way of people.
When we want to send people inside through the guards of 2000 marines, we have groups of 75. We call it fakers. Fakers usually don't go into the restricted area. What they do is to make a lot of noise to attract the forces. The navy brings all the forces to the noise area. When we make sure that we can go through into the fence, we have 150 people entering the base from the other side.
What is the secret? I have a souvenir here. (Showing a piece of barbed-wire fence in his hands) You people have same thing here in Okinawa. When we want to send people inside we break their rules, not our rules. We break the fences with a big scissors. Sometimes we put 75 people through the fences and at the same time we have other people going into the impact area on boat.
They say to the world that the people of Vieques are violent. They say to the world that they don't know why we are doing this because they need Vieques for national defense. They probably say the same here in Okinawa. You cannot trust them at all. They always lie. They say they need Viueques for national defense, they say they need Okinawa because of the national defense, and they probably say that they need South Korea because of the national defense. We need our land. We need to defend ourselves. We need our land to live, not for national defense.
Now they talk about referendum. They want to take a referendum to see whether people want the navy out of the island or not. First of all, I don't know why we have to have a referendum to get the navy out of Vieques. Why do "they" take a referendum? It's about us, not them. Besides, this is a matter of human rights, dignity, or a principle. It's not something that can go through a referendum.
While I am here in Okinawa, they have 650 cases in court in San Juan. They were arrested for going into the fences on civil disobedience. By the time I get home, they probably have 700 or 800. But for sure, we are not going to stop going into the impact area until we get the navy out of the island of Vieques.
Watch for what they say. When they say that they want to be a good neighbor. A good neighbor won't hurt you. A good neighbor won't use bombs to contaminate your health. A good neighbor wants you to live in peace. A good neighbor won't rape women. You should watch because this is the word they use all the time. "We want to be a good neighbor." I don't want such neighbor. If they want to be a good neighbor I want them to leave the island. They should be out of Vieques, Okinawa and everywhere in the world.
They say they need Vieques for national defense. They say they need Okinawa for national defense. They say they need South Korea because of the national defense. Who do they want defend? If they need bomb for exercises for defense, they can bomb Europe, they can bomb California, and they can bomb Chicago. They have 121 islands, which no humans live on in the United States, in Massachusetts and in California. Though they don't want to use those. They want to destroy your people, my people, Korean people. If they want to defend their country they can bomb California or Philadelphia. That way we can defend ourselves.
Today I was at the human chain. That is a good thing to do and I respect you. But in my opinion you have to do a lot more than that. You have to take your case out of Okinawa and bring it to the world. So everybody in the world will know what's happening here, just as we have done in Vieques. Usually we are invited to the different parts of the world to talk about Vieques. Now because your pain is my pain, I will talk about Okinawa and South Korea anywhere in the world that I am going to be invited to.
I want you to listen very carefully. They talk about their prestige because they have the biggest forces in the world. We don't have a ship, we don't have cannons and we don't have arms to fight against them. But we know how America is. If the navy continues to stay and bomb in Vieques we will ruin their prestige in the island of Vieques.
This picture here is a photo of the two-year-old girl that Luz talked about before. She is dying from cancer now, because of the navy exercise using depleted uranium. The cancer rate in Vieques is 33.9 percent over the population. Many of them are young children. The reason we have this picture is that we want you to think of being a father, a mother of a kid dying from cancer, dying because of the presence of the U.S. navy. Thinking of those people suffering, we must stay fighting, fighting for our dignity and must continue civil disobedience, until we have the navy out of our island. Thank you very much.