#3104: Jean Dominique was executed this morning (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Jean Jean-Pierre <jean@acd-pc.com>

Jean Dominique, radio- journalist and owner of Radio Haiti Inter was
executed with five gunshots in the head early this morning as he was
about to enter his station at Delmas to host his very popular morning
show.
Agronomist by profession, Jean Dominique began his career as a
broadcaster in the early sixties with his time leased program TJ
Publicité on Radio Haiti.  Jean practically introduced the Beatles and
the Rolling Stones to the station's audience. In the late sixties Jean
and his cousin leased the station from the Widmaiers. Apart from the
government imposed La Voix de la Republique d'Haiti, Jean Dominique was
the first to broadcast daily  programs in Creole hosted by renowned
artist Joe Tony (Ti Tonton). In the early seventies, he changed the
station's name to Radio Haiti Inter.  His  fiery editorials critical of
the Duvalier dictatorship caused the macoutes to ransack his station a
few times.  After the 1980 US election which  de facto ended Carter's
human rights based foreign policy, Jean Claude Baby Doc Duvalier sent
into exile Jean Dominique, his wife, journalist Michelle Montas and
close to 30 other journalists and human rights activists.
After living 6  years in the US, Jean and Michelle returned to Haiti in
1986 in the wake of the overthrow  of  Baby Doc by the  Haitian
people.  His station, totally destroyed, had to be rebuilt.
In fact, thousands of dollars were raised in New York and Canada to help
putting Radio Haiti Inter back in the air.
(In the late eighties,  while writing a book in Haiti, editor Joel
Dreyfuss hosted a Jazz program on Radio Haiti)
Once  again, the 1991 bloody military coup d'état sent  Jean and
Michelle into exile to finally return
in Haiti in 1994.
This time Jean's strong but fair editorials caused those who want to
destroy Haiti to silence him forever.
He's survived by his wife Michelle and daughters Myriam and GiGi.

Jean Jean-Pierre