[CPEO-MEF] Vieques digest 4/17/01

[bieke@coqui.net]

1) Message to Pataki

2)CALL TO ACTION IN DEFENSE OF PEACE FOR VIEQUES

3) Two Years and a Referendum



1) Message to Pataki 

(ENGLISH VERSION)



Declaration by Robert Rabin, Vieques Peace and Justice Camp, during visit to
Vieques by New York Governor, George, Pataki

Good Afternoon, Governor Pataki, a warm welcome to our Governor Calder=F3n,
to our very special friends, Denis Rivera of the 1199 Health Workers Uni=F3n
of NY and New York State Legislator, Jos=E9 Rivera; distinguished legislators
from New York and other friends of Vieques.

In representation of the Peace and Justice Camp of Vieques, we express our
gratitude for your support for peace on Vieques. We ask you, Governor Pataki,
to use the influence you may have with President Bush to help him understand
that in Vieques, the US Navy - far from defending democracy - violates the
most basic rights our community to live in peace y enjoy the security and
happiness guaranteed by the constitutions of the United States and Puerto
Rico.

>>From India to Indiana, from Canada to Argentina, our struggle has received
support from a wide range of organizations and individuals internationally
recognized for their defense of human rights - Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize
Winner, Rigoberta Mench=FA; Senator Hillary Rodman Clinton; acclaimed US
actor, Martin Sheen; the Dalai Lama; ex president of Costa Rica and Nobel
Peace Laureate, Oscar Arias; all the bishops of Puerto Rico and a
multiplicity of religious organizations and leaders in the US, including the
Executive Director of the National Council of Churches, Bob Edgar, who
represents 35 million church members.

We greatly appreciate whatever measures you might take in the upper echelons
of power in the United States, to end over half a century of mistreatment and
violation against this humble community, that with great dignity will fight
until the end to defend its patrimony and the future generations of
Viequenses.

One last point. The case of Alberto de Jes=FAs, known as Tito Kayak, and
Gazir Sued, who scaled the Statue of Liberty to dramatized the Vieques
situation, is still pending. The actions by Tito and Gazir caused no damage
to the statue. They used this symbol of liberty in a creative way to call for
peace on Vieques and we ask you to intervene on their behalf with Magistrate
Michael Doligner, to have the charges against these two men dropped.

Again, we greatly appreciate your expressions in favor of the immediate and
permanent cessation of military activity on Vieques.



Vieques, Puerto Rico April 9, 2001


14 April, 2001 
 
2) CALL TO ACTION IN DEFENSE OF PEACE FOR VIEQUES
Friends in solidarity with Peace for Vieques:
Warm greetings from "the baby island" (Vieques). The announcement by the Navy
about possible resumption of bombing in Vieques on the 27th of this month,
moves us to put all our forces of solidarity on alert in Vieques, on the main
island of Puerto Rico, in the US and elsewhere.
We ask all individuals and groups that support our struggle to communicate with
us asap, by email or telephone, to indicate your possible participation in one
of the following actions (or in actions developed by the creativity of our
communities):
1. Send representatives or delegations to Vieques to participate in civil
disobedience actions 
2. Organize civil disobedience actions at military or federal facilities in
your area 
3. Organize protest actions - vigils, pickets, prayer circles at church,
neighborhood or work 
4. Prepare and circulate press releases denouncing Navy plans to resume bombing
here 
5. Write articles for local and national newspapers, flyers or other printed
materiales denouncing military activity in Vieques 
6. Organize phone calls, faxes, emails or petition campaigns directed to
Presdiente Bush to protest the Navy's decision to resume bombing 
7. Send economic support to the CRDV for preparations of civil disobedience
actions, bail, and other costs related to the struggle
In the next days we will indicate through this and other means, more details
about local plans and suggestions for other forms of cooperation
In struggle, in solidarity 
CRDV


3) Two Years and a Referendum

R. Rabin
In the two years since the death of David Sanes on 19 April, 1999, the struggle
of our people for demilitarization has take a gigantic step toward victory. But
these moments are crucial. The Navy has intensified its program of public
relations with its favorite weapons - money and lies. The referendum is part of
their strategy to plant confusion and division. We must work to convert this
process into one that is educational and unifying.
A bit of history


The placing of the cross on Mount David on 21 April, 1999 and the decision that
day by Tito de Jes=FAs - our Tito Kayak - to remain in the bombing area,
initiated the establishment of the civil disobedience camps that stopped, for
more than a year, the most powerful militar force in the history of humanity.
A week later, the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV)
organized a small flotilla of fishing boats and dozens of Vieques citizens to
go out to Mount David and place fifty white crosses. These crosses reminded us
that David was not the only victim of military violence and that the rage that
covered over Vieques on that 19th of April responded also to the accumulated
indignation of sixty years of mistreatment at the hands of the US Navy.
During the year of intense work in the camps in the bombing zone, our people
met the many and beautiful faces of Puerto Rican solidarity - faces of
students, of union leaders, of pastors and reverends, of priests and bishops,
of fishermen, architects, archaeologists and singers, politicians and old folk,
of Puerto Ricans in solidarity from New York, Chicago, Boston, Filadelfia,
among other places. We also met faces from other countries - Argentina, Santo
Domingo, Cuba, Panama, Hawaii, Phillipines, Guam, Okinawa, Corea, Mexico,
England, among others - and many politicians and religious people from the
United States who confirmed by their presence that Vieques is not alone.
By taking over the bombing zone we allowed our scientific advisors to carry out
important studies of the environmental damages caused by the Navy and their
relations to the health crisis we suffer. With our community in control of the
Eastern part of Vieques for the first time in sixty years, thousands of people
from Vieques, from the main island and from other places, had the opportunity
to see the beauty - and the horrors - that lie behind the military fences. Now
more than ever, we knew that Vieques is big, Vieques is more beautiful that we
thought and it needs us to stop the massacre of her land, her air and waters.
The people forced Rossell=F3 to support the cessation of bombing and the
position of "Navy out of Vieques". Although this support did not last long, the
results of the Special Commission that he was forced to create, cannot be
erased. Documented forever is the environmental destruction, the economic
strangulation, the decades of deceit and lies. All of a sudden the whole world
understood what Viequenses had screamed out for many years - the US Navy is
killing our people.
In December of 1999, the main organizations of the Vieques struggle, joined
together in the Coordinating Committee for Peace and Justice, set up the Peace
and Justice Camp (PJC) with the mission of blocking military traffic at the
entrance to Camp Garcia. So it was done until the arrests of May 4th, 2000.
During those sixth months, the PJC became the principal meeting place for the
community to discuss new "accords" and "offers" and other matters related to
the struggle. It was there that the largest number of Viequenses was arrested
on May 4th and where the Viequense civil disobedients were prepared for the
second stage of actions that began on May 14th.
The Coordinating Committee ceased functioning shortly before May 4th. The CRDV
took on the responsibility for maintaining the PJC and eventually this
important space for protest and community organization became the office and
facilities of the CRDV. In addition to serving as a crucial space for protest,
the Peace and Justice Camp is used intensively for meetings, workshops on civil
disobedience and other topics of organization, to receive and house - at the
Peace and Justice Shelter built last year - solidarity delegations from the
main island, the US and elsewhere. It is also a communications center that
links Vieques' community with a support network that extends to six continents.
While Rosell=F3, Romero and Toledo cried and screamed lies about arms in the
camps and our plans to provoke violence, our people demonstrated, before the
eyes of the world, an impressive discipline. After the arrests of more than 200
people in the camps in the bombing zone and at the PJC on 4 May, 2000, around
one thousand more people have been arrested in civil disobedience actions
designed to attract attention to this situation and create obstacles to
military maneuvers. Men and women, old folk and young people, Puerto Ricans,
Canadians and people from the United States have been arrested and many jailed.
The actions continue. They have not succeeded in scaring the people of
Vieques-Puerto Rico, not with arrests, not with the Federal Courts.
Our struggle has become a positive example for many other communities that
suffer the grave problems caused by militarism. During this year the CRDV has
been invited to Korea, Okinawa, Mexico, England, the US and India, to share the
experiences of our struggle. We continuously receive messages of solidarity and
thanks for the inspiration other peoples gain from our struggle.
In addition to the protest, the CRDV for many years has worked on the proposal
for social and economic development in a Vieques freed from the Navy. As an
initiative of the Committee, in July of 1999, the creation of the Technical and
Professional Group in Support of Sustainable Development for Vieques was
formally announced. For the first time in Puerto Rico=B4s history, an
impressive team of experts in diverse areas of development and planning, from
the universities and private practice, work systematically and voluntarily to
create guidelines for sustainable development for one community - in this case,
Vieques.
The electoral victories by D=E1maso Serrano as Mayor of Vieques and Sila
Mar=EDa Calder=F3n as Governor of Puerto Rico, open more space to further the
cause of peace for Vieques. D=E1maso=B4s commitment with the struggle was shown
through his work in the Peace and Justice Camp and in the bombing area on the
4th of May, 2000. Radam=E9s Tirado, recently named sub Commissioner of Vieques,
is another excellent resource for the struggle. "Rada" and his wife Luz Le
Guillou, have been pillars of the Peace and Justice Camp. Radam=E9s was
arrested in the Camp on the 4th of May and again during a civil disobedience
action organized by the CRDV in October, when nine Viequenses risked their
lives in the bombing zone during fifteen hours of intense bombing by NATO ships
and planes.

We are motivated also by the position of the Governor and other officials of
the Puerto Rican government. Sila has remained firm in her support for the
immediate and permanent cessation of bombing here. However, we have mentioned
consistently that we cannot completely trust the politicians, because history
does not permit that. This struggle does not belong to any political party or
any particular group. This struggle is the responsibility of all Viequenses,
all Puerto Ricans and all of us who believe in peace.
We must be attentive and watchfull for the Navy=B4s attempts to plant discord
and create divisions. The Special Operations Force of the Southern Command is
located at Roosevelt Roads since last year. Part of their mission is
psychological warfare and influencing public opinion. Together with a small
group of Navy employees here these military forces have begun to use the most
dirty and cowardly methods: anonimous letters attacking the personal lives of
community leaders; spreading lies and intrigue among organizations of the
struggle; spreading false accusations to create discord among the diverse
sectors of our community in solidarity with the struggle.
Now comes the referendum as another part of the plan to create confusion and
divisions. In February, 2000, the Vieques community organizations prepared a
document rejecting the referendum because, among other reasons, "issues of
human rights, like the right to live in peace, are not to be decided by
referendum; this referendum was designed by and for the Navy which is not the
government of Vieques; the option of the people - no more bombing - is not
included."
It is very important that we convert this process designed by the military to
divide and confuse, into a process of education and unity. We support the
initiative of the Vieques Women's Alliance to hold a forum on the 21st of April
to discuss and analyze the different ways in which to approach this important
issue. Let us find in the creativity of our people the ways to change a tool of
oppression for the Navy into a mechanism of liberation for our people.
In the face of the Navy's divisive referendum - the unity of our people!
Vieques 15 April, 2001



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