wfn.org | NCCCUSA Hails Suspension of Vieques Exercises

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National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Web: www.ncccusa.org E-mail: news@ncccusa.org
NCC3/2/01 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC HAILS SUSPENSION OF U.S. MILITARY EXERCISES ON VIEQUES

March 2, 2001, NEW YORK CITY - The National Council of Churches today hailed
as "an important step" the Bush Administration's announcement that it was
suspending the U.S. Navy's bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of
Vieques.

"We welcome Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's announcement that he has
called off planned training this month on Vieques," said the NCC's General
Secretary, Dr. Bob Edgar.  "We fervently hope this will be more than a
temporary reprieve, but rather the beginning of the end of the U.S. Navy's
60-year presence on Vieques.

"The toll on the physical and mental health of the people of Vieques and the
damage to the island's ecology is well documented," said Dr. Edgar, who led
an NCC delegation to Vieques in June 2000 and who has carried forward the
Council's long-standing demand for the U.S. military to withdraw from
Vieques.

"The majority of the people of Puerto Rico have demonstrated that they do
not want Vieques to be a site for war exercises.  Puerto Rico's churches -
including Catholics, Protestants and Pentecostals - have joined forces in an
unprecedented ecumenical coalition against continued use of Vieques for U.S.
military exercises," he noted.  "Their unanimous message is, 'Not one more
bomb in Vieques.'"

The Rev. Heriberto Martinez, Executive Secretary of the Evangelical Council
of Churches, which represents most evangelical and some mainline Puerto
Rican churches, also welcomed Rumsfeld's announcement, saying, "The news is
good.  It is refreshing to the extent that we can stop the military
exercises.

"But the ultimate news for we wait is the permanent cessation of all
military practice on the island of Vieques," Martinez said today.  "That
would contribute to the realization for our brothers and sisters of Vieques
of peace as a fruit of justice, which God wants for every human being and
for all of creation."

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