|
TFLAC - Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean |
|
|
|
Pressured in Panama, Bush Leaves Door Open for Explosives Cleanup By John Lindsay-Poland George Bush was forced to deal with questions about the cleanup of explosives on former US bombing ranges from both reporters and his otherwise compliant counterpart President Martin Torrijos during his stop in Panama on November 7. In the Caribbean city of Colón, 15 residents of the nearby communities of Escobal and Ciricito that are affected by the explosives demanded a cleanup of the contaminated ranges and were arrested. “We had obligations under the treaty and we felt like we met those obligations,” Bush said. “There is a difference of opinion and so we have a disagreement that we will continue to discuss. And we're able to do so in a way that I think is constructive because we're friends.” Bush thus left the door ajar for discussion, a far different statement from what former ambassador Linda Watt and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last year, that the issue was “closed”. Now the question is whether the government of Panama will act. Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro indicated that Panama will continue to agitate and be patient. “We do not consider it a closed case in the same way we did not consider the canal question closed for 74 years,” he said. But former president Ernesto Pérez Balladares pointed out that Bush avoided dealing with the issue in any depth. Roberto Alfaro, former ambassador of Panama to the United States, proposed that the two countries create a bilateral commission to address the cleanup. Reuter news agency ran a lengthy story on the problem, citing a woman whose brother was killed last year by a mortar explosion. “The Americans must come and take away these bombs,” she said. “If they don't, more people will die.” Keith Feigenbaum, an explosive removal specialist with Mine Action, wrote on the eve of Bush’s visit that “a solution must be reached for restoring the land to a safe and usable state” and that “the ex-ranges wait as prisoners of their own contamination, cut off from the rest of the world, in a state of dormant disuse.” According to Ligia Castro, the director of Panama’s environmental agency, companies specializing in explosives disposal from Germany, China and Canada are preparing proposals for clean up of the canal area ranges. Several observers foresee cleanup in potential exchange for future concessions on the lands. The week before Bush’s visit to Panama, the Morning Call in Virginia reported that the United States had dumped chemical weapons in the waters of at least five other countries, and mentioned Panama as one of them. The C all documented dumping of thousands of tons of chemical weapons. “It's a disaster looming, a time bomb,” said Gert Harigel, a physicist in Geneva who has been active in international chemical weapons issues. He said that the United States should monitor the dump sites and publish warnings if evidence shows the weapons are leaking. Sources: El Siglo 11/8/05; latimes.com; Mine Action, vol. 5.2; La Prensa, 10/23, 11/12/05; http://www.maic.jmu.edu/journal/5.2/focus; Reuters, 11/5/05; Morning Call 10/31/05. Read the Panama Update Archives Panamá Update is published quarterly by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) ask Force on Latin America and the Caribbean. The FOR is an interfaith pacifist organization founded in 1915. Panamá Update is compiled from Panamanian and U.S. sources, and attempts to present a popular perspective on events in Panama and on U.S. policy vis-à-vis Panama. While we do not necessarily endorse all the views presented here, we are dedicated to the goals of peace with justice in Panama, and specifically to the full observance of the Carter-Torrijos Treaties' provisions for U.S. military withdrawal and environmental clean-up of U.S. bases in Panama by the year 2000. Hard copies of Panamá Update are available for a donation or upon request. Panamá Update has been edited by John Lindsay-Poland, Andrés Mares Muro and Sarah Town. Fellowship of Reconciliation
©2002 Fellowship of Reconciliation |