UN General Assembly Committee Urges Self-Determination
for Puerto Rico
The UN News Centre
reported that the special committee of the United Nations General Assembly that
deals with decolonization, formally known as the Special Committee on the
Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting
of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted a resolution on June
13. This called for an expedited process in Puerto Rico to determine what kind
of relationship the territory's population would prefer to have with the United
States.
The unanimously adopted
resolution, sponsored by Cuba, will be submitted to the full UN General
Assembly in its next session. The text of the resolution also asks that the
General Assembly support an investigation into the September 23, 2005
assassination of Puerto Rican pro-independence leader Filiberto
Ojeda Rios and violent acts against others.
If the text is adopted by the
full General Assembly, it would also call on the U.S. to respect fundamental
human rights in Puerto Rico, pay for the clean-up and decontamination of areas
of the island affected by American military activities, and address the ensuing
serious environmental and health consequences.
As in previous years, the
special committee's text called on the U.S. President to release Puerto Rican
political prisoners serving prison sentences of more than 25 years for cases
relating to the struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico and the
demilitarization of Vieques Island, which had been
used for combat exercises by the US military.
Many speakers, including
representatives of Puerto Rico's main political parties, supported the text,
saying that the island's current relationship with the United States was deeply
flawed and had stunted its socio-economic development and allowed the
exploitation of its natural resources by American companies and the United
States Navy.