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

The problems that the Costa Rican proposal sought to address, however, were understandable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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).

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.

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.

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

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

His delegation also viewed the Costa Rican proposal on the relationship between the Convention and international humanitarian law as highly relevant and worth considering.

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

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

The Working Group had considered articles II, III, IV and V of the text submitted by himself as Chairman and also the Costa Rican proposal.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Moreover, in view of the political status issue, the presence of United States Armed Forces staff in Puerto Rican universities was a constant reminder of colonial occupation.

In conclusion, the speaker urged the Special Committee, in line with international law, to call upon the United States to release the remaining Puerto Rican political prisoners.

Currently, 2,927 Puerto Rican soldiers were serving in Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, and another 4,450 were ready to leave for various hot spots around the world.

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.

Recalling that the General Assembly itself had stated that the greatest deference would be given to the aspirations of the Puerto Rican people should they wish to change their mutually agreed relationship with the United States, he said that, in order to define those aspirations, his Government was advocating a new procedural mechanism for self determination a constitutional assembly on the status of the Puerto Rican people.

Although that system provided for a local government, the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act adopted by the United States favoured the preservation of a colonial system on the island.

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 Puerto Rican people had a rich Hispanic cultural background with a worldwide reputation, wished to preserve their cultural identity and should not be culturally assimilated into the United States.

Furthermore, the current Puerto Rican Constitution, which had been tailored and authorized by the United States Congress, made it very clear that Federal law would take precedence in all circumstances.

The Republic of Korea was also grateful to the Costa Rican delegation for its proposal on the relationship between the 1994 Convention and international humanitarian law, which it would study carefully.

A group of less than 2,000 should not be allowed to impose their will on the entire Puerto Rican of 3.8 million, including 160,000 veterans of the United States Armed Forces.

PDP was confident that a constituent assembly would launch its work in January 2005 with a view to enabling the Puerto Rican people to opt for the political status that they preferred.

Since, moreover, some Puerto Rican political prisoners had been released by a Democratic president's decision, it was unlikely that Democrats would criticize a similar decision that the current Republican administration might take.