7 protesters may still be in area

 BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 VIEQUES, Puerto Rico -- U.S. Navy ships resumed bombing practice at a target
 range on Vieques Sunday even as opponents said that seven protesters were
 hiding on the 920-acre range to block the bombardment, conducted with dummy
 shells.

 Navy ships cruising near the range were heard firing about 15 rounds from their
 cannons Sunday afternoon, but it was not clear whether they were aiming at the
 Live Impact Area where the protesters were alleged to be hiding.

 Thirty-seven protesters were arrested on the range before dawn Sunday, but
 protest leaders said another seven were still inside to block the bombardment.
 There was no independent confirmation.

 The Navy bombardment -- conducted previously with live munitions -- brought to a
 head a 14-month-old battle to close the range in eastern Vieques, blamed by
 residents for a high incidence of cancer and other diseases, as well as high
 unemployment and a meager tourism industry.

 The confrontation has come down to a war of nerves: Can the Navy ever be
 sufficiently confident that the range is free of protesters to stage bombing
 exercises?

 ``Our track record for spotting trespassers is pretty good. We are using dogs and
 sophisticated equipment to spot them said Roberto Nelson, spokesman for the
 Navy's Roosevelt Roads base in Puerto Rico, before the warships' cannons began
 firing Sunday.

 ``But if they are hiding and we cannot find them, well, that's another story, Nelson
 added, referring to protesters' dangerous game of hide-and-seek in the Live Impact
 Area.

 ``It's now or never. Do or die. But I hope it doesn't come to that, said Carlos
 Zenon, head of the Vieques Fishermen's Association and an activist in the
 campaign to permanently shut down the range.

 The Live Impact Area is 11 miles from the nearest civilian areas of Vieques, an
 island 21 miles long and five miles wide just off Puerto Rico's eastern coast.

 The range was closed in April 1999 after a stray bomb from an F-18 killed a
 civilian and sparked protests in which some 200 Vieques and Puerto Rico
 residents camped out on the Live Impact Area for the next year.

 FBI agents removed the protesters in a May 4 raid, and over the next few days
 one Navy jet dropped two non-explosive ``dummy bombs while a warship fired a
 few dummy shells at the range.

 But now the Navy battle group headed by the aircraft carrier USS George
 Washington, on its way to a six-month tour in the Persian Gulf, has launched the
 first large-scale bombing practice in the area since last April.

 President Clinton, seeking a compromise on the range's future, has ordered the
 Navy to fire only non-explosive ``dummy bombs on the facility.

 The Navy has said the Washington Battle Group plans to fire up to 130,000
 pounds of dummy munitions on the Vieques range, including 600 cannon shells
 and between 550 and 830 airplane bombs of up to 1,000 pounds.

 A Navy notice posted Sunday at the Vieques ferry terminal warned boaters that
 warships and planes would be exercising on the range from 8 a.m. today to
 midnight Tuesday. Navy officials were not available for comment on the cannon
 fire heard Sunday.

 PEACEFUL RALLY

 About 300 protesters who came from Puerto Rico over the weekend joined a
 peaceful rally outside the gates to the range Saturday night, but many appeared
 to be heading back to the main island by Sunday afternoon.

 ``This is psychological warfare, Zenon said. ``The Navy wants to bomb on a
 weekday, when they hope fewer people will be around. And we want to keep the
 Navy guessing on exactly how many people we have inside.

 Vieques residents say Navy bombardments of the range with live munitions since
 World War II have contaminated the soil and water with heavy metals that cause
 ailments and have left beaches riddled with unexploded bombs.

 Tourism has been hard to develop because of the noise and the fact that the Navy
 controls the eastern and western thirds of the island, leaving its 9,400 residents
 jammed into the middle third, they complain.

 Navy officials have steadfastly denied any linkage between the bombardments
 and any disease, but they have mostly refused to cooperate with scientists
 seeking to take soil and water samples on the range.

 The Navy insists that Vieques is the only place in the Atlantic where it can hold
 simultaneous land, air and sea exercises far from heavily trafficked commercial air
 and sea routes.

 Vieques is the land portion of a huge sea and air maneuvering range wired with
 electronic sensors so that the movements of everything from submarines to
 warplanes can be recorded and played back later in computer simulations, Navy
 officials have said.

 A REFERENDUM

 Clinton's compromise calls for a referendum of Vieques residents, expected by
 next summer, on whether they want to keep or close the firing range.

 If they vote to close it, the Navy must abandon Vieques by May 2003. If not, the
 U.S. government will give the island $40 million in economic development aid, and
 the Navy will resume the use of live munitions.

 Navy officials have warned that if the Vieques range is closed they may be forced
 to scale back Roosevelt Roads, which pumps millions of dollars into the Puerto
 Rican economy each year by employing 2,500 civilian workers.

 The 9,000-acre base on the northeastern port of Ceiba, 10 miles from Vieques, is
 used by another 12,000 Puerto Ricans per year, from National Guard members
 who practice there to military retirees who shop at its commissary.

 Although a majority of Vieques residents appear willing to force the Navy out,
 Navy officials continue to believe that anti-range activists are a minority on the
 island.

 ``Their best future lies with the continued relationship with the U.S. Navy, Rear
 Adm. Kevin Green, the Roosevelt Roads-based head of the Navy's regional
 command, told the Associated Press in a recent interview.

 ``It isn't always the loudest voices that carry the day. It isn't always the people
 who are always in the public eye who really represent the wishes, the aspiration
 and desires of any community, Green said.