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Vieques protesters mobilizing in Puerto Rico

Demonstrators hold a large Puerto Rican flag during an anti-Navy rally near the Capitol building in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Thursday

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Protesters plan to camp Friday morning outside the U.S. Navy's practice range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in an effort to stop the military from resuming bombing exercises.

About 1,000 protesters rallied Thursday in San Juan outside the Capitol building before heading to Fajardo for a ferry ride to Vieques.

Roberto Rabin, spokesman for the Committee of Peace for Vieques, said the protesters will try to disrupt the exercises.

The protests come after U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler on Thursday rejected Puerto Rico's request for an emergency injunction to block the Navy from using the practice range.

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The Navy has said it wants to resume drills as early as Friday, but the start could come this weekend.

Puerto Rico had sought a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to block the drills, and Kessler's ruling applies only to that request.

"We have a strong case, a difficult case, but a strong case. ... I'm confident were going to prevail on the merits," said Eugene Gulland, an attorney representing the Puerto Rican government. He said Puerto Rico hopes to resolve the matter through talks with the Bush administration.

Kessler rejected arguments from attorneys for Puerto Rico that the coming exercise would inflict irreparable harm on people living near the range. The Department of Health and Human Services is studying whether the noise can be linked to some health problems in residents of Vieques.

Justice Department attorneys had argued the United States has the right to continue the drills while broader questions over noise are resolved.

A U.S. soldier looks down on the island of Vieques where the U.S. Navy has conducted bombing exercises since 1941

Last year, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested as they sought to block use of the bombing range, protesting the accidental bombing death of a civilian there. In April 1999, a Marine Corps jet inadvertently dropped two bombs off target, killing a civilian guard working on the bombing range.

The Pentagon says it needs the range, which it has used since 1941, for combat training for Navy and Marine pilots.

"We continue to say that the training down there is very, very important. Realistic training is one of the reasons that the United States military is as effective as it is around the world," said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley. "And Vieques is a superb training range, the best in the entire Atlantic for the uses that the Navy and Marine Corps need to put it toward."

He added that the training there "is absolutely essential to the value and the realism and the preparedness of our military forces as they prepare to deploy forward."

CNN Producer Paul Courson contributed to this report

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Vieques Island, Puerto Rico
Government of Puerto Rico - Office of the Governor
U.S. Navy
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
  • Judge Gladys Kessler
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
U.S. Department of Justice

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