From: "mart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [pttp] Fw: Vieques Update from PR ----- Original Message ----- From: benjamin ramos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2001 7:19 AM Subject: [Cuba SI] Vieques Update from PR The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign sends this report out in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Vieques. Please email far and wide. The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ProLibertad.org Bronx 718-601-4751 Manhattan 212-927-9065 New Jersey 201-435-3244 __________________________________________________________________________ Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques PO Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765 Telefax (787) 741-1717 E mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 10 November, 2001 Report from the Vieques Peace and Justice Camp In these times of war, it is our responsibility to struggle harder for peace - peace in Vieques, peace in the US, peace in Afghanistan, peace for the world. In Vieques we have lived war during six decades. We now the horrible sounds of military aircraft, bombs exploding, war ships cannon fire. Our family members die from the toxic components of the projectiles and other tools of war, more frequently that in the rest of the Puerto Rico archipelago. We don't want any more war in Vieques - we don't want any more war, period! The terrorist attacks of September are among the most barbarous acts of our times. We denounce those acts with all the energy of our hearts. But we cannot, even for an instant, succumb to the hawkish rhetoric of the militarists of the US or the Taliban, who embrace violence - from their different perspectives - as a method to resolve conflict. We scream out for peace, peace and more peace. Peace for Vieques is synonymous with the cessation of all military activity, the decontamination of our lands, water and air, the return of our territory and sustainable, healthy development in a Free Vieques. In this direction we march. In September, the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV), called for all community organizations of the struggle to begin a process of dialogues to unite efforts to become more effective in this battle for justice and peace. Saturday, 3 November, we held the third meeting of this series, with the participation of the Vieques Women's Alliance, the Vieques Youth United, the Catholic and Methodist Churches, the Horsemen for Peace, Mount Carmelo, Luisa Guadalupe Camp, Millivy Camp, Peace and Justice Camp, the Municipal Government, among others. Seeking to improve the coordination of our work and share human and material resources, the meetings have offered the leadership of our struggle an important opportunity to converse face to face and to share our hopes, concerns, ideas and constructive critiques, thereby strengthening the base of this heroic battle for Vieques. We now prepare for a meeting with the solidarity organizations from the main island of Puerto Rico, to extend this process of dialogue about the struggle. The evening of 3 November, we celebrated a special vigil at the Peace and Justice Camp, with the presence of a Delegation from the Okinawa Peace Network. Yoshikazu Makish, (architect), Shinya Oshiro (singer) y Higashioma Takuma (fisherman), through translation from Japanes to English to Spanish, spoke and sang about the struggle of their people and the solidarity between Vieques and Okinawa as a source of spiritual and material strength in our work for peace. They > presented visuals of the US military presence in Okinawa and the struggle for demilitarization - many similarities to our situation. Sheila V�lez, from the Puerto Rican Bar Association, coordinated the group's visit to Puerto Rico and the two days with us on Vieques. As part of the efforts to internationalize the struggle, six Viequenses traveled to Okinawa and other parts of Japan in the past year and a half, and our Myrna Pag�n (CRDV), leaves son for that country to participate in the Japan Peace Conference. Ismael > Guadalupe (CRDV) leaves this week for California and later travels to Cuba to bring the issue of Vieques to a series of international forum. At the end of November, Nilda Medina, also of the CRDV, will travel to the Pacific island of Guam, together with Wanda Col�n, of the Caribbean Project for Peace and Justice, where they will represent the Vieques struggle at an international meeting of indigenous women. And we are preparing for the next civil disobedience actions and to continue the wide range of strategies we have used over the years - educational work in Vieques, dissemination of the Vieques case in the rest of Puerto Rico, in the US and in other countries; lobbying in Washington, the United Nations and in other international settings. On Thursday, 8 November, Jorge Col�n and Josie Pantojas, of the Coordinating Group All Puerto Rico with Vieques, offered a workshop on civil disobedience v�a the Program for Peace on Vieques that the CRDV transmits on Channel 28, Vieques television. People interested in participating in the civil disobedience workshops can call the Committee to check the calendar of activities. Next week we hope to have on the program the ex president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association, Eduardo Villanueva and lawyer Sheila Velez, to speak on possible implications for our struggle of recently approved anti terrorist laws. On Saturday, 10 November, a delegation from the Technical and Professional Group in Support of Sustainable Development on Vieques (TPGV) will be in Vieques to meet with the Vice Mayor and other members of the Mayor's working group. The TPGV is made up of environmental scientists, lawyers, economists, planners, architects, sociologists, health experts, engineers, geographers, among others, that have produced two volumes of guidelines about the development of a Free Vieques. The TPGV grew out of an initiative of the CRDV in July, 1999, and in these two years has attracted the active participation of the Vieques Women's Alliance and the Vieques Youth United. The principal goal of this process is to help guarantee that a Vieques freed from the Navy is a Vieques for the Viequenses and other Puerto Ricans - and not for speculators and developers. A very important aspect of the work of this Support Group is the discussion and creation of mechanisms to promote genuine community participation in land use planning for the lands already rescued from the Navy and lands that will be rescued. We work hard on the protest - but we also concentrate efforts on the proposal of a future Vieques that will offer a dignified, just and peaceful existence for our people. We are enormously thankful for these great efforts by all the members of this marvelous team that includes many of Puerto Rico�s most highly respected experts in the area of social and economic development. Our struggle has been - and continues to be - a model of peaceful struggle against militarism. We also hope to be a model of sustainable development in the context of community self-determination _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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