Those two elements would end discrimination against the Puerto Rican population.

Ms. Luz Rexach (National Advancement for Puerto Rican Culture, Inc.) said that the situation in Puerto Rico was very sad.

The Committee should consider the history of Puerto Rican participation in such wars.

In fact, the United States unilaterally concluded and imposed on Puerto Rico arrangements that often ran counter to Puerto Rican interests.

The Committee had significantly assisted Puerto Rico in its struggle for demilitarization and for the release of Puerto Rican political prisoners.

His Government was therefore in favour of decolonizing Puerto Rico by way of a mechanism that ensured the full participation of all Puerto Ricans, such as an assembly on the status of the Puerto Rican people where any initiative aimed at resolving the island's political status came directly from the Puerto Rican people.

The Puerto Rican heroes, on the contrary, had been arrested and thrown into prison.

Such a broad based assembly would enable the Puerto Rican people to unanimously request the United States to grant sovereignty to Puerto Rico.

In fact, the Puerto Rican diaspora would perceive such a measure as a goodwill gesture.

Ms. Albizu Campos (Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico (PNPR)) said that decolonization was a key universal requirement under international law.

At the invitation of the Chairman, Ms. Albizu Campos (Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico (PNPR)) took place at the petitioners' table.

Ms. Rexach (National Advancement for Puerto Rican Culture) said that Puerto Rico had an elected Government and could not therefore be regarded as a colony.

Nine Puerto Rican political prisoners were currently serving sentences in federal jails of the United States.

Another source of tension facing the colonial regime was the United States Government's intention to introduce in Puerto Rico capital punishment, prohibited under the Puerto Rican Constitution.

In that context, the ongoing debate in Puerto Rico on the establishment of a constitutional assembly on the status of the Puerto Rican people was highly significant.

Make believe democracy and elections were part of a diversionary tactic that perpetuated Puerto Rico's colonial status, served the interests of the colonial power and destroyed Puerto Rican society.

Accordingly, the United States must withdraw all of its armed forces from Puerto Rican territory, release all political prisoners and assist in Puerto Rico's political, economic and social development.

The problem of the status Puerto Rico should be solved by the United Nations in line with current international law standards and the fundamental rights of the Puerto Rican people.

The aspirations of the Puerto Rican people would be realized by working openly and allowing the people themselves to decide.

The very fact that the Special Committee held hearings of Puerto Rican petitioners even though each of them supported one of three alternative political statuses for Puerto Rico proved the colonial character of Puerto Rico's current relationship with the United States.

One of them was the participation of tens of thousands of Puerto Rican soldiers in wars waged by the United States.

The Puerto Rican diaspora was experiencing the effects of racism and discrimination that historically had been the predicament of colonial communities.

At the invitation of the Chairman, Ms. Rexach (National Advancement for Puerto Rican Culture) took a place at the petitioners' table.

Ms. Reveron Collazo (Comité Puerto Rico en las Naciones Unidas) said that early on Puerto Rico's pro independence movement had warned of the serious problems currently facing the Puerto Rican people, and in particular the adverse impact of Puerto Rico's colonial status on its economic, social and cultural development.

The new proposal enjoyed the support of many sectors of Puerto Rican society, members and representatives of political parties in Puerto Rico, elected officials in the United States including several members of Congress and many Puerto Ricans residing in the United States.

In the meantime, an end had been put to those activities, carried out by that group of mercenaries on Puerto Rican territory, and the Special Committee should be thanked for adopting a resolution expressing its support for the Puerto Rican people and calling for the departure of the United States Navy from Vieques.

Mr. Martin (Puerto Rican Independence Party Partido Independista Puertoriqueño (PIP)) his party supported the draft resolution, which appealed to the United States Government meet its obligation to create conditions that would allow the Puerto Rican people to fully exercise its inalienable right to self determination and independence under General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV).

At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr. Martin (Puerto Rican Independence Party Partido Independista Puertoriqueño (PIP)) took place at the petitioners' table.

At the invitation of the Chairman, Ms. Luz Rexach (National Advancement for Puerto Rican Culture, Inc.) took place at the petitioners' table.

As a result, independence, initially demanded only by the pro independence movement, was currently supported by most of the Puerto Rican population.

PNRP wished to stress that any measure aimed at settling the issue of Puerto Rico's political status without any previous transfer of sovereign power to the Puerto Rican people would be null and void.

The President of the United States had the authority to take action for the release of Puerto Rican political prisoners jailed in the United States for participating in the fight for Puerto Rico's independence.

Fifth, the United States Armed Forces used aggressive methods to recruit Puerto Rican youth and that practice constituted a form of colonial exploitation.

Mr. Villanueva Munoz (Chairman of the Committee for Human Rights of Puerto Rico) said that the human rights committee, which he chaired, monitored closely the issue of the release of all Puerto Rican political prisoners.

Clearly, Puerto Rico's ruling class had no intention to change the colonial character of the relationship with the United States, because that situation allowed them to realize profits at the expense of the Puerto Rican people.

Colonialism was a crime against humanity and its obvious aftermath were the high crime, corruption, violence and unemployment rates that plagued Puerto Rican society.

Noting the consensus among the people of Puerto Rico in favour of the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners who are still serving sentences in United States prisons for cases related to the struggle for Puerto Rico's independence and to the Vieques Island struggle for peace,

Accordingly, the decolonization of Puerto Rico required, among other things, returning the land and coastal waters of Vieques to the people of the island, releasing Puerto Rican political prisoners, compensating the people of Vieques for damages and desisting from applying the death penalty in Puerto Rico and recruiting Puerto Ricans to serve in the United States Armed Forces.

FSPR would steadfastly uphold the rights of the Puerto Rican people under General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) and called for the immediate withdrawal of the entire military, legal and political apparatus of the United States from Puerto Rico.

Mr. Ramos Rosado ( Pro Libertad Freedom Campaign) said that his organization embodied a popular anti imperialist and anti colonialist movement for the liberation of Puerto Rican political detainees and prisoners of war and the decolonization of Puerto Rico.

In fact, Puerto Rico's colonial status, the United States military presence in Vieques and the detention of Puerto Rican political prisoners and prisoners of war provided clear evidence that the United States itself violated international law and human rights.

Over the years, Puerto Rican political prisoners too had also suffered torture, including solitary confinement, pressure to renounce their political convictions and various forms of hardship.

Requests the President of the United States of America to release all Puerto Rican political prisoners serving sentences in United States prisons for cases relating to the struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico and to the Vieques Island peace struggle

Mr. Farinacci García (Socialist Front of Puerto Rico Frente Socialista de Puerto Rico (FSPR)) said that, addressing the Special Committee in past years, the representatives of various bodies defending Puerto Rico's right to self determination and independence had invariably denounced the toughening of the colonial regime and noted the intensification of the Puerto Rican people's struggle against specific manifestations of imperialist domination.

Since 1999, all Puerto Rican organizations had described to the Special Committee the situation that had resulted from United States Navy activities on the island of Vieques.