18598: (Hermantin)Palm Beach Post-Renewed violence at home distresses local Haitians (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Renewed violence at home distresses local Haitians

By Gariot Louima, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 13, 2004



DELRAY BEACH -- Local Haitian-American families watched helplessly as their
homeland descended into a familiar cycle of bloody violence last week, with
clashes between gunmen taking the lives of more than four dozen people.

If the violence sparks a mass exodus, Palm Beach County will feel the
immediate effects because many local Haitians emigrated from areas
experiencing the most bloodshed, said Daniella Henry, an outspoken Haitian
activist who runs the Haitian American Community Council. Those fleeing the
violence in Haiti will gravitate toward their family here.

"Ninety percent of Haitians in Palm Beach County are from L'Artibonite,"
Henry said of the large northwestern region which includes the towns of
Saint Marc and Gonaives, the site of intense gunbattles between rebels and
gunmen loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

"They call this 'Ti L'Artibonite,' " Henry said: Little Artibonite in
Haitian Creole.

A recent immigrant from Saint Marc, Felix Desty said he hasn't spoken to his
children's mother in several days. The last he heard of her, she'd fled the
port city, which was briefly controlled by rebels who torched a police
station and a courthouse.

"You can't communicate with anyone back home," said Desty, 31, a garbage
collector from Lake Worth. "I don't know if anyone in my family has been a
victim of the violence."

Opposition leaders have called for Aristide's ouster, claiming his party
engaged in voter fraud in the 2000 election that brought him back to office.

On Feb. 5, rebels swept through Gonaives and the violence spread to a dozen
provincial towns in the Artibonite Valley, north of Port-Au-Prince. At least
49 people have been killed and food and fuel supplies to northern Haiti have
been blocked.

Businesses have shut down and families depending on provisions from the
capital and abroad must fend for themselves.

"People have been calling, crying that they have family there that is
starving," Henry said. "They want to get food there, but how is it going to
get there?

"If you're in Cap Haitien (in the northeast), you're stuck. You can't drive
out because there is no gas. Planes won't fly there because they won't have
fuel to leave once they get there."

Henry said her father owns a hotel in Cap Haitien that has been closed for a
week because there is no fuel to power generators.

His wife runs a funeral home, which also is closed. Her older brother,
buying supplies in South Florida for a friend's store, has been unable to
return or ship his goods.

The friend's store was looted this week by attackers taking advantage of a
citywide blackout.

"I'm scared for my father's hotel, because you don't know what's going to
happen next," Henry said.

Such fears are shared by Jacob and Therese Pierre, whose three children live
just outside Cap Haitien.

"All you can do," said 46-year-old Therese Pierre, "is pray that everyone is
OK when everything ends."

"I think they'll be OK, but they're scared," said her husband. "But what can
you do?"

gariot_louima@pbpost.com

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