Puerto Rican Mennonites look to needs of Vieques citizens as Navy resumes bombing

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 24 June 2000

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The United States Navy plans to resume bombing practice soon on Vieques Island off the coast of Puerto Rico.

The U.S. Navy went ahead with plans despite appeals from Puerto Rican officials and protesters who had occupied the Vieques range for more than a year before being removed by federal agents in May.

Ramón Bermudez, president of the Puerto Rican Mennonite Church, said the church hopes to respond to the needs of Vieques citizens. "We know some other groups are there from the outside, but they don't seem to be taking the heart of the Vieques people," said Bermudez. "We are interested in working with the people of Vieques and determining what the island's residents need and want to do."

Lynn Roth, director of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) East Coast, met with church leaders in Puerto Rico last week. "Although they disagree with the U.S. Navy presence on the island, their concern is how to respond as a peace church to those affected by the bombing. MCC hopes to walk with the Puerto Rican Mennonites however they decide to respond."

Roth and Dionicio Acosta, an MCC East Coast program administrator, were in Puerto Rico last week to discuss how Puerto Rican Mennonites can work more closely with MCC. There are two groups of Mennonites organized in Puerto Rico. In the Hatillo/Arecibo area, the Mennonite Churches are organized as the Mision Menonita del Caribe. In the Aibonito/San Juan area, they are organized as the Puerto Rican Mennonite Conference.

According to news reports, protestors are planning on entering the range to protest the resumption of bombing.

Protestors have found support from the U.S. National Council of Churches and the National Resources Defense Council, which is filing a suit in federal court to call the U.S. Navy to task for environmental and human rights claims stemming from the Vieques bombing. Island residents claim high cancer rates, environmental damage and a lack of tourism are the results of the Navy's target practice.

On Tuesday, National Council of Churches General Secretary, Rev. Bob Edgar, encouraged President Bill Clinton to hear Puerto Rico's spiritual leaders, "who are the moral authority and who have the trust ofthe people. ...Puerto Rico's mainline and evangelical Protestant, Roman Catholic and Pentecostal churchleaders have joined forces in an unprecedented ecumenical coalition against continued use of Viequesfor U.S. military exercises," said Rev. Edgar, "Their message is unanimous: 'Not one more bomb in Vieques."

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org