21603: Esser: Haitian groups say thanks to Jamaica (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Jamaica Gleaner
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com

April 29, 2004

Haitian groups say thanks to Jamaica

THE EDITOR, Sir:

THIS IS a letter of appreciation to the people and Government of
Jamaica:

As Haitians and as members and representatives of grassroots
organizations and institutions working for democracy and justice in
Haiti, we take this opportunity to express our deep appreciation and
gratitude to the people and Government of Jamaica for their generous
hospitality and kindness to the democratically-elected president of
Haiti and his family.

We thank Jamaica for standing firm, in the face of enormous pressure
and intimidation, in not recognizing the un-elected government that
replaced the constitutional president and Government of Haiti through
the bloody coup d'etat.

We thank Jamaica for not automatically repatriating the fleeing
Haitian refugees.

In this most challenging time for the people of Haiti since the first
coup d'etat (1991-1994) against Haiti's first democratically-elected
president, we take comfort in remembering that an African freedom
fighter from Jamaica who come to be known as the most noble of all
Haitians in history first struck the blow that would eventually bring
down both slavery and colonialism in the Western Hemisphere.
Jamaica's courageous and principled support for the rule of law and
democracy in Haiti reminds us of this shared revolutionary legacy.

Over 200 years ago, on August 14, 1791, on a hilltop at a wood
clearing called Bwa Kayiman in Haiti, after 300 years of chattel
slavery, brutality and imposed inhumanity, it was the African freedom
fighter from Jamaica named Boukman who stood up and led the African
captives against the then most powerful nations in the world -
France, Britain, and Spain.

We Haitians take courage and hold on to fearless faith when we
remember this and that 2004 is also our bicentennial. Jamaica, your
courageous struggle today to support justice shall not be made in
vain just as it wasn't for Boukman.

Thank you Jamaica for honoring the ancestors' greatest feat when few
would dare. Thank you for showing respect for the one-person,
one-vote principle. Thank you and the P.J. Patterson Government for
its generous and exceptional hospitality to the legitimate President
of Haiti and his family during this most horrific time in the
200-year old Haitian struggle for self-rule and sovereignty.

Thank you, members of CARICOM.

We are, etc.,

Representatives of international, regional

and United States lawyers' organizations,

and experts in international law.

.