16485: (hermantin) -Activist's death in bombing a blow to Haitian groups (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Fri, Aug. 22, 2003

Activist's death in bombing a blow to Haitian groups
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@herald.com

The death of a longtime American activist in the United Nations headquarters
bombing in Baghdad this week is a grave loss to the cause of human rights in
general and Haitian refugee rights in particular, say South Florida
immigration advocates.

Although much of Arthur Helton's work on behalf of Haitian refugees was done
in the 1980s to mid-1990s as director of the refugee project for the New
York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, he remained actively involved
in recent years, dispensing advice via e-mail and phone calls from his new
post as a program director with a New York-based think tank.

Helton, 54, is believed to have been with U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello
on Tuesday when the site was bombed.

Among those who routinely sought his wisdom is Cheryl Little, head of the
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center and longtime Haitian advocate. The two met
about 15 years ago when Little worked as an attorney for Miami's Haitian
Refugee Center. Helton was a member of the advocacy center's advisory board.

''He's been a confidant of mine for well over a decade,'' a still-shaken
Little said in a telephone interview. ``He was a wonderful advocate for
Haitian refugees . . . It was a personal issue for Arthur. He felt strongly
that Haitians had been singled out for special discriminatory treatment. He
passionately defended the basic rights of Haitians.''

Calling Helton's death ''a huge blow to the refugee and immigrant
communities,'' Little said she had no idea he had traveled to Iraq to assess
human-rights conditions on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Helton began working for the council in 1999, and served as its program
director of peace and conflict studies and senior fellow for refugee studies
and preventive action, said an obituary on the council's website.

''Arthur was one of our most respected senior fellows and a noted expert on
refugee and humanitarian issues and international law,'' council President
Richard N. Haass was quoted as saying.

Helton was considered an expert on migrants' rights and refugee protection.

''He was always the voice of reason, making his case better than anyone,''
Little said. ``He could argue against your position in such a gentle way,
with a twinkle in his eye and smile in his face and it was never
threatening. You almost wanted to agree with him.''

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