U.S.

Tensions Flare In Vieques

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 18, 2001 / 9:14 AM EDT / CBS

U.S. Navy security personnel fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a crowd of protesters and journalists on Vieques island, sparking debate over the military's latest use of force and its resumption of maneuvers on the outlying Puerto Rican island.

The Navy said protesters were trying to break into a restricted area on Thursday night so security personnel fired tear gas, bean bags and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. The projectiles were fired only after the protesters fired a flare toward the base, shined bright lights at the officers and tried to break into the fence, the Navy said.

Tomas van Houtryve, a photographer for The Associated Press, was hit in the arm by a rubber bullet as he ran away from guards firing tear gas. He had been covering the protests and the start of the maneuvers.

Van Houtryve said the protesters only shook the fence and yelled at the Navy when security personnel fired a flare, canisters of tear gas and then three rubber bullets at the fleeing crowd.

"There were people cutting the fence (on the range), throwing rocks at the security force and vehicles, and pushing on the fence," said Navy spokeswoman, Lt. Cmdr. Katherine Goode. "As a result the security forces perceived this as threat to harm military personnel."

But according to Van Houtryve, protesters didn't have any tools to cut the fence and didn't fire any flares. Photographers did use bright flashes to take pictures, he said.

Goode declined comment when asked about the conflicting report.

At least 12 protesters managed to invade Navy land bordering the bombing range to try to stop exercises, according to protest groups.

Some of the protesters early Friday morning spoke out against the Navy's use of rubber bullets and tear gas.

"This is another act of brutality and violence on the part of the Navy," said Robert Rabin, an anti-Navy activist. "There was no doubt that this was an abuse of power because the military knew that there were journalists (in the crowd)."

The latest exercises, which could last until Aug. 10, involve ship-to-shore shelling, air-to-ground bombing and beach assaults, making the maneuvers some of the biggest since a civilian guard was killed by off-target bombs on the range in 1999. His death sparked island-wide protests on the 18-mile-long island of Vieques and on the main island.

The Navy claims it needs the site to simulate amphibious landings. But residents said the bombing has damaged the quality of Vieques' air and water and causes health problems for them.

In a nonbinding referendum last weekend, nearly 70 percent of Vieques voters chose to end Navy training on the island.

Thirty percent of Vieques voters supported the Navy remaining indefinitely and resuming bombing with live munitions — a protest vote against the alleged anti-American policies of the U.S. territory's Gov. Sila Calderon, who called for the referendum.

Only 1.7 percent of Vieques voters in Sunday's referendum backed Prsident Bush's plan for the Navy to withdraw in 2003 and continue exercises with dummy bombs.

On Wednesday, a U.S. House of Representatives committee moved to make it harder for Mr. Bush to end bombing exercises on Vieques by 2003, placing tough new conditions on any U.S. exit.

The House Armed Services Committee endorsed a measure that would require the Navy to certify it had found a suitable new training ground before it could end exercises on Vieques.

Lt. Bill Speaks, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, said 10 days of scheduled exercises by the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt battle group of warships began with shelling of the — range using five-inch — shells and other ammunition. There was no immediate dropping of dummy bombs from warplanes.

On Monday the Navy will begin its combined training, which will include aerial bombing and Marine landings in addition to ship to shore shelling, Goode said. Some 2,000 Marines will take part.