14413: Karshan: Former military harass doctors in Central Haiti (Miami Herald ltr to editor) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Miami Herald

Posted on Sat, Jan. 11, 2003

Anti-Aristide sentiment fuels turmoil in Haiti

Re the Dec. 21 article Haitian government says ex-soldiers mount insurgency:
Marie Yolone Gilles, of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, says that
she saw no evidence of anything like ''an armed band of men'' during three
days in the area of Los Cahobas.

As a documentary producer working in central Haiti last month, I saw plenty
of evidence. On Dec. 17, at about 9 p.m., I was riding in a Jeep transporting
Haitian doctors and patients from Belledare to Los Cahobas, near the border
with the Dominican Republic.

As we rounded the corner in a remote road, our headlights suddenly flashed
upon at least five armed men standing by their vehicle, dressed from head to
toe in army fatigues. They pointed automatic rifles and pistols at us,
forcing us to stop.

They pulled us out onto the dark, desolate road and lined us up at gunpoint.
They interrogated the leader of our group, a Haitian doctor, demanding to
know who we were and where we were going. When the doctor explained that we
were transporting patients from Belledare to Los Cahobas, they identified
themselves as former members of the Haitian military.

As we stood in the road, hands in the air, guns pointed at our heads, they
lectured us about President Aristide having disbanded the Haitian army. They
vowed that they would fight to return the military to power. After this
anti-Aristide harangue, they ordered us back into our Jeep, and we continued
on our way.

The article voiced the views of those who doubted that such incidents were
occurring, but I experienced it.

DAVID MURDOCK

Washington, D.C.

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