Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques

["D OC" <donaloc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
PO Box 1424    Vieques, Puerto Rico  00765
Telefax (787) 741-1717     E mail:  bieke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

11 October, 2002

Press Release

Viequenses demand full truth on chemical weapons and immediate cessation of
bombing

Indignant over the Pentagon's admission to use of chemical and biological
weapons in Vieques, the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
(CRDV) is petitioning, through its representative in Washington, DC, lawyer
Flavio Cumpiano,  all information related to military use of chemicals and
toxics on the island of Vieques.

Defense Department officials admitted Wednesday that in May of 1969 the Navy
carried out experiments in Vieques with triocyl phosphate, a chemical
related to problems of the skin, eyes, the respiratory tract and to cancer
in animals.

Dr. Rafael Rivera Castaño, a Viequense epidemiologist and member of the
CRDV, suggested the "... new evidence on this grave danger to the health of
our people posed by Navy practices,  points to the urgent need for an
epidemiological study that focusses on military contamination."

Ismael Guadalupe, spokesman for the Vieques committee, expressed the
indignation and concern of the community about future bombing that might
disperse these chemical agents into the air or the sea if a bomb impacts the
sunken USS Killen, that contains hundreds of drums that could hold toxic
materials from the military experiments.  "An executive order by President
Bush that guarentees Navy departure and environmental clean up,  is more
necesarry now in light of this new and horrorfying information from the
Pentagon," said Guadalupe.

Members of the CRDV will take these serious concerns to New York and
Washington later this month when they participate in a Peace for Vieques
Walk-a-Thon and an international forum on Environmental Injustice.  The
Viequenses expressed their solidarity with communities in Hawaii, Alaska and
Florida where, according to the military, experiments with chemical and
biological weapons were also carried out in the sixties and seventies.

Contacts:  Nilda Medina, Robert Rabin  (787) 375-0525


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