13516: Hermantin: Sunsentinerl: Small town built boat that carried Haitians to S. Florida (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Small town built boat that carried Haitians to S. Florida

By Tim Collie
Staff Writer
Posted November 1 2002

CHOUCHOU BEACH, Haiti -- Carrying bottled water and small sacks of food,
dozens of people began arriving in this remote village early last week and
camped out around the large boat being finished on its soft, white sands.

Many traveled for hours over rough mountain roads to reach this point, the
culmination of a three-month building effort by residents of a small fishing
town who were determined to get to the United States.


By Oct. 23, the 50-foot boat was floated out into the water off Chouchou
Beach and its passengers gave their final tearful goodbyes.

"People just reached the breaking point here, and we decided to build the
boat -- that's how this happened," said Deus Welby, 24, who waved goodbye to
three friends on the refugee voyage, which ended in a dramatic arrival off
Key Biscayne on Tuesday. "We put together the money, and if people couldn't
afford it, they donated whatever they could. Some people gave wood, some
gave nails. Others just gave their labor. We got enough money from others to
buy the engine.

"It wasn't that hard to build this boat -- we're sea people and everyone
knows how to build a boat this simple," said Welby. "I put three of my best
friends in all the world on that boat, so I know it was seaworthy."

The boat was not part of a smuggling operation, residents here insist, but
an effort by a small town of 3,000 people who had become fed up with Haiti's
deteriorating political and economic situation. At least one member from
every family in the village was on the boat, residents said. The rest of the
passengers came from villages and towns up and down this country's northern
coast.

"There wasn't a captain, or a crew really," said Welby. "In any effort like
this, leaders emerge, people take charge. Each of us decided who would stay,
and who would go. We all know how to pilot a boat."

News spreads

Nestled in a small cove surrounded by tall, mist-shrouded mountains about
three hours from the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien, Chouchou Beach is
well-known among residents around Cap-Haitien for its beautiful, isolated
beach. That popularity is how word got out, according to residents, about
the voyage. As vacationers to the beach watched the construction, many began
to donate money for a place on the boat.

More than 200 people gathered on the beach Thursday to tell a reporter the
story of the boat's construction and how people were selected to make the
voyage. Several recalled the excitement here Tuesday afternoon as news broke
on Voice of America's Creole language broadcast that the boat had arrived in
Miami.

Many cried, danced and rejoiced to know their brothers, sisters, cousins and
uncles had survived. Asked who already had residents living in South
Florida, nearly everyone raised their hand, shouting out Miami, Fort
Lauderdale, Delray Beach and other cities.

"My 19-year-old son was on the boat and I'm happy he did it," said Duchene
Pierre, 48, the village's elected alderman. "There was nothing for him here
and I couldn't feed him. I couldn't even find him a job. We all knew that
this was risky, that it's an either/or situation. Either they make it to
America, or they drown trying."

And now that their first effort has made it to America, the people of
Chouchou have already started building their next boat. On Thursday,
20-foot-long mahogany logs were lying on the beach, already being sawed into
planks.

"I can't believe that America will send anybody back because Americans know
how bad the situation is for Haitians," explained Welby, whose mother lives
in Fort Lauderdale. He didn't take the voyage because he's hoping to enter
the United States legally, as a resident alien.

"America believes in God, and nobody who believes in God would send people
back to a country like this."

The poorest country in the hemisphere, Haiti once again may be descending
into a political crisis reminiscent of nearly a decade ago, when a U.S.
military invasion returned President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power and
stemmed a tide of tens of thousands of desperate boat people attempting to
land on Florida's shores.

The nation is mired in a political deadlock over flawed congressional
elections that took place in 2000. A currency crisis has cut the value of
the Haitian gourd nearly in half over the last several weeks, and armed
gangs linked to rival political parties are terrorizing some areas. Aristide
and his opposition have resisted international efforts to resolve the crisis
and an effort to disarm these gangs by the country's small, underfunded
police force is failing miserably, say observers.

Politics blamed

Asked why they're doing it, Chouchou's residents said they were victims of
political harassment and poverty. Many are aware that they stand a better
chance of gaining residency in the United States through political asylum,
but some acknowledged that they weren't specifically targets of political
violence.

"It's random violence, but isn't that political?" said Pierre, the village
alderman. "And what I mean by that is that there are gangs here linked to
the parties, and they start shooting up areas at night. Bullets fly and
people get hurt.

"But the second reason we leave is economic, and that's also because of the
politics," he added. "It's impossible to make anything work here if you
cannot afford to live because of the political decisions. Over the last week
the price of cement here has nearly doubled. And that affects construction,
road work, and that means lost jobs."

Thirty-year-old Wilfred Ferdinand has two brothers and three cousins on the
boat. As the construction progressed, the family had to meet and decide who
was going to make the voyage. His brothers and cousins were chosen because
they were younger, and one feared for his life.

"He was traumatized -- he stepped out of the house one night and got shot in
the leg," said Ferdinand. "He wasn't overly political, but the crime and
political violence here is out of control. The police have started randomly
beating people just to keep order.

"For the family it wasn't a hard decision even though we knew the risks --
you can either die here or die trying to get to America."

Tim Collie can be reached at tcollie@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4573.









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