dautch NAvy Vessel Painted in Puerto Rico
Antonio Carmona Baez and Jan Reniers - 14.05.2002 11:54
Peace activists paint "Peace for Vieques" on a Dutch Navy ship resting at a dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico last Monday, 13 April in protest of Dutch involvement in military exercises on the island municipality of Vieques, Puerto Rico. Dutch version forthcoming.
14 May 2002
Peace Activist Paint Dutch Navy Vessel in Puerto Rico
By Antonio Carmona Báez and Jan Reniers
Comite Vrede voor Vieques
Puerto Rican peace activists involved in the struggle to dismiss the presence of the US Navy and NATO allies painted a Dutch Navy ship that was sitting at the docks of San Juan, Puerto Rico with the words "Peace for Vieques", early Monday morning.
The group known as Collective Resistance Friends of the Sea (Amigos del Mar) took full responsibility for the action. The activists involved were reported to the local police by navy guard Beleman Magiel, who took notice of the activist group´s manoeuvres at approximately 3:00 in the morning.
Through a press release, an anonymous representative of the organisation stated that "Holland is one of the countries that has rented the island municipality of Vieques, Puerto Rico from the US Navy in order to conduct military exercises and train its soldiers.
Friends of the Sea also repudiated the presence of school-ships for "misrepresenting the facts so blatantly, exhibiting the navy facilities and museums as if they were a luxury and as if the killing of people and our environment were a great contribution to humanity."
The local police stated that after receiving notice of the act of protest, they dispatched a high security police motorboat to the San Juan Bay area in search of those responsible. The search was fruitless according to the police.
Puerto Ricans have been struggling against the US military presence since 1946, when the Navy expropriated thousands of homes and occupied two-thirds of the island of Vieques. But it was the murder of David Sanes that sparked the new movement against the US military and NATO. David Sanes was killed on 19 April 1999, when a Naval plane accidentally dropped two bombs on the compound where this civilian worked as a night watchman. Since then, fisher unions, environmentalists, physicians, archaeologists, pro-independence groups and local Church leaders have joined forces to pressure the local government to become more vocal in protesting the US military presence. This movement also gained momentum after scientific research conducted by the US government revealed that the presence of uranium and depleted uranium (DU) shells were most likely the cause for high cancer rates in Vieques. DU was used in NATO strikes in Kosovo during the 1990s.
Vieques has been used as a training camp for US Marines in rehearsals for military interventions since the Korean War. Napalm, used in the Vietnam War, was first tested on the island of Vieques during the 1960s. Currently, Vieques is used as a launching base for US military forces headed towards Colombia in the so-called War against Drugs and by NATO forces in the "war against terrorism".
Ignoring the demands of local politicians, civilians, church groups and environmentalists to cease military exercises, the US Navy resumed target-practice bombing on Monday, 1 April 2002 on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in the Caribbean. A week later, Mayor of the Vieques island municipality Dámaso Serrano joined peace activists and pro-independence groups in calling for an end to military practices and demanding that the US Navy leave the island.
Since 1 April, 14 demonstrators have been arrested. This adds to the 2.000 local and international peace activists, including US Congressional representatives, who were arrested throughout the last two years while attempting to penetrate the heavily guarded Naval base. US Naval guards used tear gas against the pacifists. Both mainstream and local independent sources have reported that Naval guards have been continuously raiding the three civilian peace camps set up by local NGOs.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum recently toured the islands of Puerto Rico and met with Vieques Mayor Dámaso Serrano. Menchú called upon the United Nations to intervene in the crisis and expressed her solidarity with the struggle for the self-determination of Puerto Rico. The oldest standing colony of the world, Puerto Rico has been a US territory since the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Puerto Ricans are considered to be US citizens, but have neither voice nor vote in the US Congress and are not allowed to participate in US presidential elections. They are eligible, however, for drafting in case of US war or military operations.
For more information on Vieques,Puerto Rico please contact Jan Reniers  j.reniers@chello.nl
or Antonio Carmona Báez carmonabaez@tni.org
 E-Mail: antonio carmona baez
|
