16591: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-News reports from the Caribbean (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


News reports from the Caribbean

Associated Press
Posted August 30 2003

HAITI: U.S. had warned against flying Tropical Airways 10 days before crash

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Days before a Tropical Airways plane exploded in a
sugarcane field killing all 21 people aboard, the U.S. State Department
warned Americans not to use the airline because its planes were not properly
maintained.

The twin-engine turboprop Let-410 crashed Sunday. Most of those killed were
Haitians living in the Bahamas and returning for a religious festival in the
coastal town of Port-de-Paix.

Shortly after the plane took off Sunday afternoon, smoke billowed out and a
back hatch opened, allowing baggage to tumble out, witnesses said. The
aircraft plummeted and exploded in a ball of fire several kilometers from
the Cap-Haitien airport.

The U.S. State Department had warned Aug. 15 that U.S. Embassy staff and
official visitors to Haiti should avoid flying Tropical Airways because of
``serious concerns'' over maintenance oversights.

The airline was still operating daily flights Thursday to major Haitian
cities, the Bahamas and to the Turks and Caicos Islands.


HAITI: Journalists protest priest's expulsion of reporter from provincial
church

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Journalists were protesting the expulsion of a
radio reporter from a provincial church where the president was visiting,
while calling for answers on his disappearance this week.

Peterson Milord, who worked for independent Radio Vision 2000 and local
station Passion, had been covering President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's visit
Saturday to the Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church in the peninsular town of
Leogane.

>From the pulpit, Rev. Fritz Sauvagere said Milord had been spreading lies
about him and the government, and ordered he be expelled from the church.

Milord had broadcast reports citing local complaints of the reverend's high
prices for burials and other ceremonies and accusing him of misappropriating
church funds.

Journalists gathered Thursday outside the church to demand an apology from
Sauvagere and to express concern for Milord's whereabouts, after he
disappeared Wednesday. Radio Passion director Marius Emmanuel said ``we fear
for his life.''

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