[CPEO-MEF] Vieques: something to celebrate?

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

[This information came from John Lindsay-Poland, forlatam@igc.org at Fellowship
of Reconciliation]

WIRE:12/02/1999 23:10:00 ET
Navy carrier battle group will deploy abroad without Vieques training


WASHINGTON (AP) _ Puerto Rico has won at least a temporary victory in its fight
to stop the Navy from resuming use of its  bombing range on the island of
Vieques, Clinton administration  officials said Thursday. The aircraft carrier
USS Eisenhower and its battle group,  including a contingent of Marines aboard
Navy ships, will complete  training off the southeastern U.S. coast instead of
using Vieques,  the officials said.

The Marines will conduct an amphibious assault on the North Carolina coast and
Navy strike aircraft will conduct air-to-ground bombing runs at Eglin Air Force
Base, Fla, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

If the decision holds, it would mean the Eisenhower battle group  likely would
deploy to the Mediterranean Sea in February at a  substantially reduced state
of combat readiness, several officials  said. Normally the battle group would
conclude its pre-deployment  training with a joint exercise on Vieques that is
designed to create combat-like conditions.

The decision not to send the Eisenhower to Vieques may be announced by the
White House as early as Friday, the officials  said.

The officials acknowledged this amounts to a victory for Puerto Rico, which had
insisted the Navy stop using Vieques for live-fire training after a civilian
security guard was killed by an errant bomb last April.

The Navy, backed by the conclusions of an independent panel, has said Vieques
is the only site available for East Coast-based Navy and Marine Corp units to
conduct the combined sea, land and air exercises they need.

The officials cautioned that discussions were continuing late  Thursday.

White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said no final decisions had been made.

CBS News first reported Thursday that the Eisenhower battle group would not use
Vieques for pre-deployment training.

The office of Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossello, who has discussed Vieques with
Clinton in several telephone conversations in the past few weeks, dismissed the
CBS report as "speculation."

"We don't have any official notification from the White House," said the
governor's spokesman, Alfonso Aguilar.  "Consequently, there is no indication
of what the president's decision is and we're going to continue to wait.
Nothing has changed."

Still, the unconfirmed report sparked a celebration among the  protesters on
Vieques, some of whom have camped on the beach for  nearly six months.

"If this is true, then it's a triumph of the people," said Ismael Guadelupe, a
local fisherman who is among the protest leaders. "But the triumph will be
complete when they turn over all the lands, clean up the contamination and
compensate the people of Vieques for all their years of suffering."



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