Vieques Libre - http://www.viequeslibre.org
Veterans Support Vieques
1 May 2000
President Bill Clinton
White House
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. President,
I write on behalf of a group of U.S. veterans who have been involved with the efforts of the people of Vieques, Puerto Rico, to bring to an end the more than fifty years of the Navy's use of their island as a bombing range.
As veterans we understand all too well that the Navy has broken commitment after commitment to the people of Vieques, and that the people of Vieques have a perfect right to unilaterally suspend or end the agreement imposed on them so many years ago. As veterans we also understand that the Navy's claims of national security are bogus and without sufficient merit to continue to sacrifice the lives and health of U.S. citizens, whether in a colony like Puerto Rico or in any one of the fifty states.
But we write now because of published reports that the federal government plans to remove the protesters encamped in the live fire zone and to resume the practice bombing immediately. We have been to Vieques. We have seen at first hand the determination of the protesters to exercise their rights.
We have seen at first hand the widespread support they receive from almost every sector of Puerto Rican society. The forcible removal and detention of these local patriots would be a travesty of justice, and would receive enormous international condemnation, which would be well deserved. For our part, we would do whatever is in our power to support and sustain that condemnation.
We see an easy solution. You can order that a referendum be held *before* any resumption of the bombing. You can direct that this referendum allow the people of Vieques to decide whether to permit any more bombing at all, as well as to choose between live and inert bombs. You can commit the federal government to cleaning up the island and its environment whatever the outcome of the referendum.
But arresting, removing and detaining the protestors who seek only the rights they have as citizens and as human beings, and to resume the bombing despite the opposition of the great majority of the people of Vieques -- this would be a crime. You must not allow the government we served to commit such a crime against our fellow Americans, many of whom served with us, in peace and in war.
Respectfully submitted,
Ben Chitty, USN 1965-9, VN 1996-7 1968
For Veterans Support Vieques
Jersey City, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, New York
Paper copy follows
Copies to Vice-President Al Gore, Attorney General Janet Reno,
and NY/NJ Congressional delegation