[CPEO-MEF] Rigoberta Menchu solidarity

[bieke@coqui.net]

(English Version)

Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
P.O. Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
(787) 741-0716 Email: bieke@coqui.net

October 24, 2000

PRESS RELEASE

VIEQUENSES RECEIVE MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY FROM RIGOBERTA MENCHU,  WINNER OF 
THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR PEACE

Yesterday a letter arrived via fax at the Peace and  Justice Camp, office of 
the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques  (CPRDV), from 
Rigoberta Menchu Tum Guatemalan winner of the Nobel Price for Peace with a 
message of support for the struggle of the people of Vieques to  put an end 
to military practices on the "Baby Girl Island" (Vieques).

The five paragraph missive described this renowned  pacifist and human 
rights activist's concern about the "negative consequences  to health that 
these practices have brought & as well as the loss of human life  that has 
resulted from these military activities." This fighter for the rights of  
the indigenous peoples of the Americas also signaled her concern "that the  
actions for peace and peaceful coexistence are being met with more and more  
military exercises, with an unstoppable arms race."

Referring to the use of peaceful civil disobedience which has been the base 
of the struggle in Vieques during these two years, Menchu  said that the 
struggle of the people of Vieques "constitutes a valuable  contribution to 
the series of movements that are occurring in many places to  eradicate the 
use of violence to resolve conflicts. Your struggle is an invaluable 
contribution to building more humane relations of co-existence," she  wrote.

The letter from Rigoberta Menchu can be added to other expressions of 
support and solidarity with the struggle of the people of  Vieques, such as 
that of the Dalai Lama and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.  Viequenses have received 
messages of solidarity from other communities that  struggle against 
militarism in Okinawa, Hawaii, Panama, Korea, Guam and the  Philippines, 
among other places. The message from the winner of the Nobel Peace for  
Peace arrives in the midst of a campaign of intense protest against the  
largest military maneuvers in Vieques since a Navy bomb killed viequense  
civilian guard David Sanes on April 19, 1999.

Contact: Robert Rabin or Nilda Medina (787)  741-0716

Robert L. Rabin Siegal
Comite Pro  Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques
Apartado 1424 Vieques, PR 00765
(787) 741-0716 cel. 375-0525

FUERA LA MARINA DE VIEQUES!

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