22451: Durban: Washington Post on Marx-Vilaire Accident (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

What a terrible tragedy.  All of us on the Corbett List who care
about Haiti have lost a true friend...

Lance Durban

=============

 Haiti Activist Dies After Crash

 By Del Quentin Wilber and Martin Weil

  One of this country's most prominent activists for democracy
and development in Haiti was fatally injured over the weekend
when his car was struck by a stolen vehicle driven by a
teenager, D.C. police said.

  Marx Aristide, 37, of Silver Spring and a 30-year-old Maryland
woman who was described by friends as his fiancee, were hit
Saturday evening in Northwest Washington, police said.

 Aristide, an economist who had once run the Washington Office
on Haiti, a nonprofit human rights group, was described as an
eloquent voice for his native island. He died about noon Sunday
at Howard University Hospital, police said.

  Authorities declined to identify the woman, calling her a
witness to the accident, which occurred about 6:25 p.m. Saturday
at Florida Avenue and 14th Street.

 The 14-year-old driver of the stolen Jeep was charged with
second-degree murder, leaving an accident and reckless driving,
police said.

 News reports of Aristide's writing and speaking, and associates
interviewed yesterday, portrayed him as vigorous in urging
Haitian Americans to contribute their talents and energies to
help relieve Haiti's grinding poverty.

 "He started a nonprofit organization called the Skill Share
Foundation," said Haitian American leader Mildred Charles. The
group reached out to Haitian expatriates to "share their
knowledge and expertise in trying to rebuild Haiti," he said.

 In addition, after Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide was
apparently forced from office this year -- an action to which
Marx Aristide objected -- he went to Haiti to observe the new
interim government and the state of human rights, according to
Washington-based rights activist Nicole Lee.

 She said that he told audiences that despite his name, he was
related to neither President Aristide nor Karl Marx.

 Friends said that after president Aristide left office, Marx
Aristide "was very active in challenging" what he considered
U.S.  policies that had driven him out.  He and two others were
to discuss Haiti yesterday with the editorial board of The
Washington Post; the meeting was canceled.

 Bill Fletcher Jr. of TransAfrica Forum, who was to head the
delegation, said Aristide would have brought "a visceral
connection . . . with the people and the situation in Haiti that
was unique."

 Marx Aristide was born in the Haitian city of Gonaives, studied
at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and did
graduate work at Howard University.

 His mother lives in New York and he had a daughter, friends
said.

 Police said that Marx Aristide was headed east on Florida
Avenue when his Toyota was struck by the Jeep, which was headed
south at high speed on 14th Street NW. The Jeep's driver and
another 14-year-old in the car ran but were later arrested,
police said. They were not identified because of their age.

 Marx Aristide's "life was a message to us all, to stand up and
fight for what is right," Mildred Charles said.