RHC Viewpoint: Protests Planned Against Resumed Vieques Bombing
 
 
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 25 April 2001

(there was no English RHC News today)

Viewpoint:

PUERTO RICANS PREPARE TO PROTEST AS US NAVY PLANS NEW BOMBING OF VIEQUES

If all goes as the Pentagon hopes, on Friday Vieques will again be the
target of U.S. Navy bombing. According to a Navy report, planes will drop
some 600 bombs, weighing from 25 to 2,000 pounds each, on the tiny Puerto
Rican island municipality which the Pentagon has used as a military testing
ground for more than 60 years.

The renewed war games are scheduled to take place from April 27 to 29 with
the participation of 10 ships and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
George Washington. In addition to bombings using dummy ammunition, Navy
officials announce that between 600 and 1500 projectiles will be fired from
five-inch cannons mounted on the participating ships.

This resumption of Navy maneuvers in Vieques has alerted the Puerto Rican
people, the great majority of whom are demanding that the U.S. forces leave
the municipality, which is located 14 kilometers east of the main island of
Puerto Rico.

Putting aside the differences existing between Puerto Ricans who favor
independence, those who are supporters of annexation and those who defend
the current status of Free Associated State, the people are united against
the U.S. bombing of Vieques.

A number of organizations have announced protest demonstrations aimed at
halting the renewed war rehearsals. In April of l999 mass protests resumed
in Vieques, sparked by the death of a Puerto Rican civilian guard, David
Sanes, when an F-18 aircraft "accidentally" dropped two bombs on the wrong
target.

Moreover, Puerto Rico's governor, Sila Maria Calderon, on Tuesday signed a
bill passed by the Parliament, aimed at stopping the bombing in Vieques by
banning excessively loud noise.

A study has revealed that due to the bombings, the majority of the island's
9,300 inhabitants are suffering from a disease known as "vibro-acoustic
syndrome," an ailment discovered 20 years ago by Portuguese scientist, Nuno
Castelo Branco. Just last Sunday, Castelo Branco, who has conducted studies
in Vieques, testified to the Puerto Rican Congress that the explosions
produced by target practice exercises by the U.S. Navy over Vieques are loud
enough to cause the disease. In his opinion, noise that registers above 100
decibels at a frequency of less than 500 megahertz affects the nervous,
immunological, cardiovascular, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems of
human beings.

Despite all this, the U.S. Navy considers Vieques to be "the crown jewel of
air, land and sea training," which is obviously of far more importance to
Washington than the suffering of the island's inhabitants.

(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.

 
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rhc-eng-18845
2001-Apr-26 00:25:48