21377: Esser: Haitian lawyer to meet with Aristide, refugees today (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Jamaica Observer
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com

April 17, 2004

Observer Reporter
Haitian lawyer to meet with Aristide, refugees today

MARGUERITE Laurent, chairperson of the Haitians Lawyers Leadership
Network is scheduled to meet today with ousted Haitian president,
Jean-Beatrand Aristide as well as a group of Haitian refugees in
Portland.

Laurent yesterday declined to comment on the planned discussions with
Aristide, but said that in the meeting with the refugees she will
make them aware that there is a "process for political asylum here".

"We heard that to date, no one has applied (for asylum)," she told
journalists at a press briefing at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in
Kingston yesterday. "We are going to try and get them representation."

Laurent, along with Alina Sixto of Ajoupa - a Haitian charitable
organisation, said the trip to Jamaica is a "mission of
appreciation"" to personally thank the Jamaican Government and its
people for assisting the Haitians.

She said thank you letters were already delivered to the Office of
the Prime Minister, the secretary-general of the Caribbean Community
and the Ministry of Finance and Planning.

"We thank Jamaica for standing firm in the face of enormous pressure
and intimidation, in not recognising the un-elected government that
replaced the constitutional president and government of Haiti through
the bloody coup d'etat of February 29, 2004," said the letter, which
was released to the media.

Meanwhile, she vowed that her group will continue the fight for the
reinstatement of the Aristide government and said they will also push
for the pay over of the US$21 billion restitution allegedly owed to
the Haitians by the French.

"[We are going to] to see that the rule of law is applied which
include seeing Aristide finish his mandate," she said yesterday.

Aristide's departure, she said, was a coup d'etat and has landed the
almost nine million Haitians back into dictatorship.

"There's a lot of evidence that this was no rag tag coup," she noted.
"[It] was orchestrated by the same people that orchestrated the
[first one]."

Meanwhile, a teary-eyed Sixto lamented that "Haitian oppression is
real", noting that even 200 years after they broke themselves free
from the shackles of slavery, they continue to pay dearly with their
lives for the bravery of their ancestors.

"As black people we struggle, we are paying a big price with our
blood because our sisters decided to break out of slavery," she
sobbed. "They want to destroy our colour, but we're standing. we will
let no one put us back in slavery."
.