CPTnet
July 27, 2001
FORT WAYNE, IN: Vieques resister begins serving sentence

With songs, scripture and prayers, Mark Byler of Assembly Mennonite Church
(Goshen IN) was blessed by fifty friends and family members as he entered
the Allen County Work Release facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Monday
night. Byler was beginning a 20-night sentence at the facility for crossing
into the US Navy base on Vieques, Puerto Rico, as a way to halt Navy
bombing maneuvers there.

  Byler was part of a Christian Peacemaker Team delegation when he and H.A.
Penner (Akron, PA), Brian Ladd (Boulder, CO), and Rich Williams (West New
York, NJ) were arrested on May 2.

  Susan Mark Landis, Minister of Peace and Justice for the Mennonite
Church, read a resolution passed by the Mennonite Biennial Assembly in
Nashville, TN, on July 7. The statement called on President Bush to "clean
up contaminated land [on Vieques] so children can play safely, farmers can
grow healthy crops, and fishers can fish in unpolluted waters."

Supporters from at least 16 different congregations crowded into the
entrance and stairwell of the Work Release Center to sing, pray, read from
the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), and hear words from Martin Luther
King, Jr. as a heavy rain storm blew through. Immediately after, in time
for a press conference, the rain stopped.

  Byler began by sharing the experiences and faith understandings that
compelled him to step onto the navy base. Louise Baldwin Rieman of the
Standing Committee of the Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren
and Cynthia Reynolds, Director of the Council of Ministries for the
Northern Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church spoke
respectively of the 1980 Church of the Brethren and 2000 United Methodist
resolutions calling for the US Navy to leave Vieques immediately. They
noted how issues of Christian discipleship brought their denominations to
these positions and that the issues of the 60-year US Navy presence in
Vieques go far beyond the shores of Puerto Rico.

Bob Gross of North Manchester, IN, said this peacemaking witness comes from
the clear understanding that "All war is sin." Byler completed the circle
by speaking of the navy maneuvers that will begin again about August
. More people plan to commit civil disobedience in order keep the bombs
from falling, thus becoming part of one of the most effective nonviolent
campaigns in the world
today.

In addition to the 20 nights at the work release facility, Byler's sentence
includes 100 hours of community service and one year of probation. Ladd
received a similar sentence and is serving his work-release time at a
Boulder, CO, half-way house. He will be released July 30. Penner was
released from Guaynabo Detention Center in San Juan, PR, July 13 after
completing his 20-day prison sentence; Williams is due to be released from
the same prison on July 25 after serving a 30-day sentence.