Bishop supports efforts to stop practice bombing

In recent years, the Navy has continued to explode bombs, drop napalm and depleted uranium, and dump ammunition on the island. Environmental and human interest groups have continued to ask Congress to stop the practices, which they believe are detrimental to the lives of the residents, animals and vegetation.

Now Bishop Howard J. Hubbard has expressed support for those efforts.

Long process

However, due to extensive legal action and protests by the Navy, cessation has been delayed and bombing has continued. Earlier this year, a civilian was killed when a bomb was dropped off-target.

Since the panel's conclusion 20 years ago, numerous groups have actively protested the Navy's activities, including the AFL-CIO, the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, members of Congress, the U.N. Special Committee on De-Colonization, the Episcopal Conference, Pax Christi USA, and the Caribbean Project for Justice and Peace Fellowship.

Solidarity

A Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said that the island still provides "ideal conditions because the Navy can combine amphibious training, naval gunfire training and air-to-ground ordinance training there."

After conducting its own study, the Navy concluded that there was "no acceptable alternative site to Vieques" for practice bombing and training operations.

Catholic interest

Bishop Howard J. Hubbard recently responded to the growing worldwide effort in a letter to the Albany Committee for Peace and Justice for Vieques.

"The Catholic Church regards each person as having a sacred dignity and possessing God-given rights," he wrote. "First among these rights is the right to life and bodily integrity, which includes the conditions necessary for a life free of torture. The intense emotional stress resulting from bombs exploding nearby, which the Viequenses have been forced to live with for 60 years, and the probable cancer-causing agents and other toxins released by the detonation of thousands of tons of modern weapons, violate this right to life."

The Bishop also voiced his concern for destruction of wildlife, vegetation and fishing habitats as the result of bombing on the 21-mile-long island where over 9,000 people reside.

"The plants, animals, water, soil and air have a value in and of themselves," he noted. "I find it disturbing that our government chose a location for activities that disrupts normal living among Americans who are among our nation's racial minorities. The basic premise of democracy is that all people have the right to have a voice in the conditions under which they live. The people of Vieques have been denied that voice for too long. It is time for the government of the United States to listen to their wishes."

(Flavio Cumpiano, an attorney and U.S. representative of the Committee for Rescue and Development of Vieques, will speak at the University at Albany on "The Road to Peace for Vieques in the Aftermath of the 2000 Elections," at 2 p.m., Dec. 2, in the Terrace Lounge of the Campus Center at the University at Albany.)

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