wfn.org | United Methodists hail temporary bombing halt on Vieques

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

March 7, 2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-32-71B{116}

By United Methodist News Service

United Methodists are hailing the Bush administration's decision to
temporarily suspend Navy bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, but
at the same time they are continuing to push for a permanent withdrawal.

The Rev. German Acevedo-Delgado, an executive with the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries, said church members in the United States and in
the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico were pleased to learn of Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's announcement of the halt in bombing practice
while negotiators try to resolve the dispute over the Navy's use of the
island.

Acevedo considers it a "good sign" that Rumsfeld heeded pleas from Puerto
Rican Gov. Sila Calderon, with whom he met on Feb. 27, and others lobbying
for the United States to pull out.

"Still, we would like to see an immediate cease of all exercises, period,"
he stressed.

The Rev. Eliezer Valentin-Castanon, an executive with the United Methodist
Board of Church and Society, said he considered the suspension a positive if
not quite hopeful sign for a final resolution and applauds the fact that the
Bush administration is "trying to listen and have some dialogue."

Representatives of civilian and religious organizations in Puerto Rico
happened to be in Washington to lobby Congress on the issue when the
announcement was made, he said. "I would like to say thank you to the
President for stopping the bombing," he added.

The United Methodist Church officially supports the end of all military
activities on Vieques and the return of the land to the people there. A
resolution passed by the 2000 General Conference, the denomination's top
legislative body, also urged the Navy to clean up the contamination caused
by its exercises, address related health concerns, and establish measures to
promote the reconstruction and economic development of Vieques.

Health concerns include the firing of uranium-depleted shells, which leak
radiation and may be linked to cancer.

In a March 2 statement, the Rev. Robert Edgar, chief executive of the
National Council of Churches, said he hoped the suspension would be "the
beginning of the end of the U.S. Navy's 60-year presence on Vieques."

Edgar, who led a NCC delegation to the island last June, noted that the toll
on the physical and mental health of the people of Vieques, as well as
damage to the island's ecology, has been well documented.

"The majority of the people of Puerto Rico have demonstrated that they do
not want Vieques to be a site for war exercises," he said. "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."   

According to the Associated Press, the Navy - which owns two-thirds of
Vieques - considers its exercises there to be vital to national defense
because they uniquely combine air, sea and land maneuvers. It stopped using
live bombs for practice when two went astray in 1999 and killed a civilian
guard on the bombing range.

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United Methodist News Service
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