Puerto Ricans Protest Dummy Bombs

WASHINGTON — President Clinton’s order to allow the Navy to resume dropping inert bombs in Puerto Rico demonstrates a cavalier and undemocratic disregard for residents who want the military to leave immediately, a delegation of protesters charged Wednesday.

“We want the Navy out of there,” said Carlos Zenon, a fishermen who has organized demonstrations against the Navy. “They could bomb Staten Island if they want or Martha’s Vineyard.”

At a press conference, Zenon and the other demonstrators promised to continue protests and other acts of civil disobedience to stop the Navy from firing dummy weapons on Vieques, a 51-square-mile island located eight miles off Puerto Rico. The group met with lawmakers Wednesday and protested outside the White House.

At a separate press conference later in the day, Clinton was asked whether he would be willing to use force to remove protesters who have acted as human shields on the island. He didn’t respond directly but said the people of Puerto Rico should accept his directive as “a perfectly reasonable compromise.”

“I still believe it is a good agreement,” he said. “I view this compromise as an empowerment of the people of Puerto Rico.”

For some 60 years, the Navy has occupied Vieques and bombed, shelled and strafed it as a military training ground. The island’s 9,400 residents are sandwiched between a western zone where the military stores weapons in bunkers and an eastern training ground where bombings, shellings and mock invasions are staged.

After an errant bomb killed a civilian security guard and injured four others last April, protesters moved in to act as human shields. The military exercises were temporarily suspended, and Puerto Rico demanded the bombing range be shut down.

However, Clinton reached a deal last month with Puerto Rico’s Gov. Pedro Rossello that allows the Navy to continue training for now, but only using inert bombs. The agreement calls for a referendum, likely to be held in 2001, that will give Vieques residents two choices:

* They can allow the Navy to resume use of the range on its own terms--including the use of live bombs.

* Or they can require the Navy to cease all training by May 1, 2003. Until then, however, the Navy could use the dummy bombs.

Most observers believe Vieques will vote to evict the Navy.

Among those protesting Wednesday was Mirta Sarta Rodriguez, the sister of David Sanes Rodriguez, the 35-year-old security guard who died last April. She wept as she talked about her brother.

“I want the Navy to leave Vieques once and for all,” she said through a translator.

The protesters also claim the war games are responsible for a cancer rate almost double the Puerto Rican average.