Forty-two professors have joined in a Harvard junior's fight to end the U.S. Navy's presence on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

By signing a petition written by Hans S. Perl-Matanzo '01, professors are arguing that the Navy's use of the island as a site for war games and practice bombing runs has spelled economic problems and humanitarian issues for the island's residents, called Viequenses.

Several prominent professors, including Warburg Professor of Economics, Emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith, have joined with over 200 Harvard students in demanding that President Clinton remove all military personnel from the island.

Since 1941, the Navy has practiced advanced training--integrating different elements of combat--on the small island off the Puerto Rican mainland.

Though the Navy says the Vieques training range is vital to military readiness, Perl-Matanzo's supporters maintain that the Navy's presence has been devastating to the 9,300 Viequenses who inhabit the island.

"The Pentagon has been using Vieques for target practice for decades now," said Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs John H. Coatsworth, the director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

Coatsworth said his support for the petition was "pretty much a no-brainer."

Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law Laurence H. Tribe '62 said he signed the petition because he was "convinced of the humanitarian case for stopping the bombing."