23381: ( Hermantin) Miami-Herald-South Florida supporters of Aristide decry arrests in (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Tue, Oct. 05, 2004





South Florida supporters of Aristide decry arrests in Haiti

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@herald.com


Local supporters of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide say the
arrest of three pro-Aristide Haitian senators in their homeland over the
weekend is illegal, and part of the interim government's campaign to destroy
anyone who still supports the exiled president.

The South Florida members of Aristide's Lavalas Family Party also say the
police and armed gangs -- not pro-Aristide protestors -- are to blame for a
recent rash of escalating violence taking place during pro-Aristide marches
in Port-au-Prince. Fourteen people have been killed, including four police
officers, three of whom were beheaded.

''There is currently no place in Haiti for political dissent or discussion.
Anyone seen as an Aristide supporter is in danger,'' said Farah Juste, a
well-known Haitian singer and pro-Aristide activist said Tuesday during a
press conference at the Little Haiti storefront offices of Veye Yo, a local
Aristide advocacy group. ``It is ironic that the very government that came
to power on the pretext of eliminating political repression is engaging in
the very act it condemns.''

Haitian government officials allege that the three politicians, which
included Haitian Senate President Ivon Feuille, are suspected of being
''intellectual authors'' of the violence that erupted Thursday during
demonstrations demanding Aristide's return. They also allege they found
assault weapons in the senators' vehicles, parked outside of a radio station
where the senators were engaged in a six-hour stand off before their arrest.

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