19620: (Hermantin)PalmBeachPost-Haitians here fret for safety of families (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haitians here fret for safety of families

By Kathleen Chapman, Josh Mitchell and Scott McCabe, Palm Beach Post Staff
Writers
Monday, March 1, 2004



Haitians living in Palm Beach County followed news of the coup with
apprehension Sunday, divided in political views but united by fear for their
families' safety.

Even those who cheered the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
worried his violent ouster would lead to chaos.

"We are not going to celebrate, because we don't know what is going to
happen next," said Philippe "Bob" Louis Jeune, president of the Haitian
Citizen United Task Force.

Too far away to protect their families, often unable to reach them by phone,
local Haitians did what they could. They tuned in to Creole radio stations.
And they prayed.

"My brothers and my sisters are there. God knows what is going to happen to
them," said Ford Eloge, a school district employee and reporter for a local
Haitian radio station. "I pray for Haiti."

Eloge had been trying to reach his family for days. But the phone lines were
jammed, or down.

"I could not sleep since last week," he said.

Sunday morning, Eloge finally heard from his mother. She told him she fled
the violence in her hometown of St. Marc, then headed to Dessalines. When
fighting started there, she retreated to a friend's house in a small
village. She is not a political woman, Eloge said, but he fears she will be
killed.

Marc Inley Belfort, a local college student, said he has been afraid to call
his parents in Port-au-Prince.

"You know that it's very possible to hear a lot of screaming in the
background," he said, "with people saying that someone in my family is
dead."

Though many local Haitians said they were tired of Aristide, they are even
more weary of the nation's frequent coups.

Daniella Henry, who heads a Delray Beach social service center, wanted
Aristide to leave. But she wanted a smooth transition and a successor, not a
violent ouster.

"When is it going to end? After 200 years, I'm very upset and frustrated. I
am tired of seeing my country this way," Henry said.

Eloge agreed: "We are in 2004. We have to stop sending Haitians in exile all
the time."

Haitians put more hope in Aristide than any other ruler in modern history,
said Yanick Martin, a spokeswoman for the Haitian American Historical
Society.

"We really trusted him; we really thought he was going to help us," Martin
said. But, Aristide's Lavalas Family Party has failed to deliver since being
returned to office by U.S. troops in 1994, he said.

"We have nothing," Martin said.

In 1991, Jeune helped organize a local rally in support of Aristide. But
now, Jeune said, there is no Haitian army, and most of the police are
corrupt.

"This is why I cannot stand behind him," he said.

Winie Robin, a pediatrician in Haiti, said she fled the country in 1995 when
her life was threatened by members of Aristide's Lavalas party. She hosted a
gathering at her house Sunday to celebrate his resignation.

"I've been praying to God that one day that man would leave," Robin said.

Others supported him to the end. Evelyn Bertrand, who has a sister in Haiti,
said Aristide was unfairly blamed for Haiti's problems.

"They're not happy about it," Bertrand said. "She tells me it's going to be
worse now."

In the end, said the Rev. Yves LaPierre of St. Ann Catholic Church in West
Palm Beach, there was little to say but this:

"We hope, we hope, there is enough goodwill from the people and from the
leaders on the ground to find a solution for the country."

kathleen_chapman@pbpost.com, josh_mitchell@pbpost.com,
scott_mccabe@pbpost.com

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