Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
P.O. Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Telefax 787 741-0716 E mail: bieke@coqui.net
4 September, 2000

Press Release of the Vieques Organizing Committee of the 1st of October National Front

March and Demonstration in Support of Civil Disobedience

The Puerto Rican community of Vieques, through its organizations, convokes all Puerto Ricans to join in a massive mobilization in support of peacefull civil disobedience here. The related actions will take place principally on Vieques on the 1st of October, with a huge march and demonstration of unity in support of the campaign of peacefull civil disobedience that we have conducted successfully for more than a year. Simultaneously, important civil disobedience actions will take place in Vieques and on the main island of Puerto Rico. The march-demo will begin at 11AM on the first, leaving Barrio Esperanza, on the South coast of Vieques, moving in several directions.
This project brings together an ample unitary front, representing the diverse Viequense organizations that have sustained the struggle of our people to get the US Navy out of Vieques. Among these groups are Yayi Key Collective, Mount David, Mount Carmelo, Peace and Justice Camp, Vieques Women´s Alliance, Vieques Youth United, Horsemen for Peace, Mapepe Camp, Popular Democratic Party (Vieques), PR Independence Party (Vieques), Catholic and Methodist churches of Vieques, Vieques South Coast Fishermen´s Asoc., Vieques North Coast Fishermen´s Asoc., Vieques Merchants, The Voice of Vieques Newspaper, Lula Tirado Camp, Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, and others that will join the march. The wide array of Viequense organizations and the massive participation in the march will counteract the Navy lies ? and those of its few supporters ? that we the Viequenses are not the protagonists of our struggle. After the first of October it will be clearly confirmed that the Viequense people are in the first line of the battle to end the genocidal presence of the US Navy on our island.
At the same time, we support the National Day in Solidarity with the People of Vieques to be held in Washington, DC on the 22nd of September in front of the White House, beginning at midday. This event will constitute a powerful example of how our struggle and demands go beyond the borders of Puerto Rico.
The mobilization for the October 1st activity will be organized by brigades, each one with the name of a Viequense killed as a result of many years of the criminal military presence on our island. The brigades will begin to move on the 27th of September and will carry out diverse activities, product of the creativity of this struggle. The actions previous to the first of October are designed to reinforce and amplify the impact of the great march and demonstration, in which more than a thousand Viequenses and an equal number of Puerto Ricans from the main island will participate.
The brothers and sisters moving to Vieques on the 27th will be received in Vieques and moved to a series of camps set up for this action. At 8:00 in the morning on 1 October, a shining national fleet composed of dozens of boats with Puerto Rican and Vieques flags will leave the East coast of Puerto Rico. The fleet will transport hundreds of people to the town of Esperanza on the South coast of Vieques, who will join thousands of peace brigade members to begin the actions.
This great march and demonstration on October 1, 2000, will go down in the history of our people, together with the 4th of May, as one of the events that marked the history of our liberation from the Navy. Join this great offesive for Peace. Vieques will be free. !US Navy out of Vieques!

Contact: Nilda Medina Dú}z, CRDV 787 741-0716
Robert L. Rabin Siegal
ComitEPro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques
Apartado 1424 Vieques, PR 00765
(787) 741-0716 cel. 375-0525

¡FUERA LA MARINA DE VIEQUES!

Vieques' activists face charges at the Bronx Criminal Court

Vieques Libre - http://www.viequeslibre.org
http://www.micronetix.net/virus/yankees.htm
September 3, 2000
PRESS RELEASE: ViequesEactivists face charges The seven Puerto Rican activists that were arrested at Yankee Stadium on May 5th for their direct action protest condemning the raid of Vieques by federal agents, will have their third hearing at the Bronx Criminal Court, where they face criminal trespassing charges. Members of the Puerto Rican community and affinity groups, including city politicians and activists from around the area, will be present to show their support for Vieques and defendants Juan Antonio Casañas, Carmen Ana Dávila, Freddie Marrero, Miguel Marrero, Elliot Monteverde, Rubén Ortiz, and Héctor Rosario. For more information contact Héctor Rosario at 917-549-6546.

U.S. Navy Out of Vieques!

http://www.micronetix.net/virus/yankees.htm

EX - US army doctor says uranium shells harmed vets

FRANCE: September 4, 2000
PARIS - A former U.S. army doctor said on Sunday that many Gulf War veterans suffered from renal and other diseases as a result of inhaling particles of depleted uranium used in anti-tank shells.
"According to some estimates, 320 tonnes of depleted uranium were exploded during the (1991) Gulf War," doctor Asaf Durakovic told reporters after speaking before a conference of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine.
"Many of the patients (that I examined) suffered renal disease and failure, the clinical consequences of inhaled uranium," he said.
Durakovic said depleted uranium that coated shells to ease penetration of thick armour exploded into multiple particles, which "became part of atmospheric dust" after hitting targets.
"Because of the omnipresence of small sub-micron radioactive dust in the Persian Gulf, uranium that was liberated by impact (with tanks)...evaporated at temperatures higher than several thousand degrees centigrade," he said.
"Some of those particles were inhaled and stayed in the lungs...where they can cause cancer, and some entered into the bloodstream and affected kidneys and bones."
Durakovic, who held the rank of colonel, is now with the department of Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School in Washington.
He told reporters that he had come under "political pressure" from U.S. authorities to halt his research shortly after the Gulf War, when the U.S. military first challenged the notion that a mysterious "Gulf War syndrome" affected many veterans.
Authorities are now conducting their own studies.
"I don't claim uranium contamination is the (main) cause of the Gulf War syndrome but the veterans show high levels of depleted uranium in their bodies and studies about this must be intensified," he said.
The British Sunday Times newspaper said Durakovic would tell the conference that "tens of thousands" of British and American soldiers were dying from radiation from depleted uranium shells. But he gave no such figure.
Some published medical studies have linked the Gulf War syndrome, with symptoms ranging from flu to chronic fatigue and asthma, to the multiple vaccines given soldiers during the war to counter possible Iraqi chemical weapons attacks.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Tue, 5 Sep 2000 14:25:23 EDT

Vieques: U.S. Navy Expropriations During World War II

César Ayala Casás, Ph.D. Department of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies Lehman College, City University of New York Bronx NY 10468
EMAIL: ayala@lehman.cuny.edu Versión en Español

75 Arrested in Vieques Protest Outside White House

By Christina Pino-Marina
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Friday , September 22, 2000

Seventy-five demonstrators protesting U.S. Navy presence on the Caribbean island of Vieques were arrested by U.S. Park Police in front of the White House Friday afternoon as hundreds of supporters in nearby Lafayette Park chanted anti-Navy slogans in Spanish.
The scheduled rally called for the Navy to suspend target practice and withdraw completely from Vieques, which lies 13 miles east of Puerto Rico. Many Puerto Ricans say they are enraged by an April 1999 incident in which a Marine Corps jet dropped two 500-pound bombs off target, killing a civilian security guard named David Sanes Rodriguez.
Chanting "Vieques, Si! Navy, No!" and "Hey, Ho! U.S. NavyĠs Gotta Go," a group of men and women women lined up on the sidewalk in front of the White House, their black and white shirts spelling out "Para Vieques" (For Vieques). Enid Gonzalez Aleman, a private attorney for the demonstrators, said 44 men and 31 women were arrested Friday.
About 25 U.S. Park police officers led protesters away in plastic handcuffs and loaded them onto two buses. Police Lt. John Pierce said the demonstrators were arrested for breaking a federal regulation code that prohibits stationary demonstrations in front of the White House. The protesters face misdemeanor charges and fines of up to $50, he said.
A crowd of supporters danced, sang and chanted across from the White House in Lafayette Park as a group of five men sang and beat drums and hollow gourds.
"People are in danger in Vieques," said 22-year-old Cristina Miranda, a Puerto Rican who lives in Washington. "The United States thinks it owns Puerto Rico, and it does not. It is not safe for the Navy to use any type of bombs, even if they are not explosive bombs."
Protest organizers said today's rally will be followed by demonstrations across Puerto Rico next week.
After months of negotiations with Gov. Pedro Rossello, President Clinton agreed to order the Navy out by May 2003 if the 9,400 residents of Puerto Rico ƒ~ a U.S. commonwealth ƒ~ vote in a referendum to expel it. Clinton gave the Navy permission to continue training without explosives, and the Navy started using inert "dummy" bombs in May of this year.
Vieques was annexed to Puerto Rico in 1854, but about 70 percent of the island has been under the jurisdiction of the Navy since 1941. Navy officials have said Vieques is crucial for simultaneous air, land and sea operations with live munitions.
Navy officials could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

(c) 2000 Washington Post Newsweek Interactive