23423: Esser: KPFA radio interview of Father Jean Juste during the course of his arrest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

U.S. radio interview of Father Jean Juste during the course of his
arrest

Flashpoints Radio
http://www.flashpoints.net/

broadcasting from Pacifica Radio Station KPFA - Berkeley, CA
Investigative News Radio Weekdays at 5 PM Pacific Time
live over the internet:
http://www.lns.com/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=aud-
one.kpfa.org&port=8000&mount=icy_0&file=dummy.m3u


Flashoints Radio’s Dennis Bernstein interviews Kevin Pina and Haitian
Priest Father Jean-Juste: arrested by masked police as he was feeding
poor
children in Church - Transcript


October 13, 2004.

Bernstein: In a chilling interview just before airtime, Flashpoints
reached long-time Haitian pro-democracy theologian, Father Gerard
Jean-Juste as he was arrested. Jean-Juste, a pastor [priest] at Saint
Claire’s church for the poor was surrounded by masked men as he served
poor children lifesaving meals. The masked men then came inside the
church
and arrested Jean-Juste and took him to jail, dragged him away in front
of
the kids. In one moment we’ll hear a bit of that chilling interview with
Father Jean-Juste, just as he was arrested and right after. We were
told,
in fact, that he was bleeding at the time that we spoke with him  But
first we go live to Port au Prince where we are joined by our special
correspondent Kevin Pina. Kevin, I know that you spoke with Father
Jean-Juste just before he was arrested; would you remind people who he
is
and the significance of this kind of arrest?

Pina: Well, Jean-Juste has been a long-time pro-democracy advocate;
he’s a liberation theology priest; I first met him in 1991 following the
first military coup against Jean Bertrand Aristide. He was in at the
parish of Saint Gerard. He was in hiding. He was known to have helped
many
people following that murderous coup by the military on September 30,
1991. I’ve taken many delegations, Global Exchange and others, we’ve
gone
there on Sundays, every Sunday Jean-Juste has a day for the poor
children
in his neighbourhood, where he gives free meals to a lot of the poor
children. For many of them it’s the only hot meal they get every week.
He’s a man who is much loved in the community; he’s a man is who is very
well known for his strength and his courage and as you said tonight,
Jean-Juste has been arrested by the de facto government of Gerard
Latortue.

Bernstein: Now, we spoke to him after he was arrested. You spoke to
him right before. What did he tell you?

Pina: He said that what he thought they were accusing him of was
importation of guns; he had heard some of that. He said that they were
accusing him of harbouring gunmen in his church. He made it really clear
that anyone who knows him knows that he is a man of non-violence, that
he
is a man of strong convictions, but he does not condone violence. He
said
he though that this was a ‘desperate move’ on behalf of the government
to
shut up, to close the mouths of anyone [inaudible] feels does not
believe
as they do. He said he thought this was a ‘sad day for democracy in
Haiti,’ and that it was the end of freedom of expression, and that he
would ‘pray for them from his jail cell.’

Bernstein: We spoke to him right after you; we managed to get him
while he was being held in police custody. Again, we are talking about
Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a leader in the pro-democracy movement, a
very strong advocate for the poor, and his church, Saint Claire, a
church for the poor where, Kevin mentioned, many of us have visited him
and learned a great deal from him. Anyway, here is our reaching him in
police custody…

Jean-Juste: I am under arrest, they just took off the handcuffs
from me…

Bernstein: They just put the handcuffs on you now?

Jean-Juste: They just took them off of me and my hands are

bleeding, and so they are taking me from one commissariat, from one
headquarter, from my parish, now to Petionville, they’re heading with
me.


Bernstein: So they came to your church and arrested you while you
were feeding the children?

Jean-Juste: Yeah.

Bernstein: And you are in a car now, or, in a police car, where are
you?

Jean-Juste: I am right now by my church in a commissariat area, the
police headquarters, and they are going to take me to a jail in
Petionville.

Bernstein: They’re taking you to a jail in Petionville…

Jean-Juste: I can’t speak longer…

Bernstein: Why are they arresting you?

Jean-Juste I don’t know yet, I don’t know yet. They thought I was
accessing…

Bernstein: Are the children o.k.?

Jean-Juste: Yes, the children are o.k. I sent all of them home. I
was supposed to say mass at 4:30 for my people, that’s all…

Bernstein: And why did they say they’re arresting you?

Jean-Juste: Nothing, The police say they are doing their job.

Bernstein: Did they just surround the church wearing masks? Is that
what happened?

Jean-Juste: Yeah. They still have masks on. I have five of them
with masks on…right now…wearing masks…

Bernstein: And they came inside the church?…

Jean-Juste Ok…[background noise…]

Bernstein: Are you o.k. now, where can we reach you, in Petionville?

Jean-Juste: If you can call the Nuncio for me, or the Pope to say
that …[inaudible]…that they are taking one of their Priests to jail. I
tried to find my Bishop, no answer.

Bernstein: So you want us to call the Pope or the Nuncio, or to
alert the church…

Jean-Juste Yeah…[inaudible]…

Bernstein:…That one of their Priests who works with the poor is
being arrested

Jean-Juste O.k. I have to go; the police told me I have to go. O.k.

Bernstein: Are you physically o.k.?

Jean-Juste: I have to go sir…No…wounded [barely audible…], it’s o.k.

Bernstein You’re wounded? O.k…My name is Dennis Bernstein. We just
spoke with Father Jean-Juste, a long time, well-known supporter and
radio
broadcaster with the Lavalas movement, who works with the poor, was just
arrested in his church while they were feeding the children. I’m not
sure
which meal they were in the middle of when a group of men came in with
masks on, arrested him, handcuffed him. Apparently  he is bleeding; it
was
hard to get the information…

Back to live coverage with Bernstein and Kevin Pina.

Bernstein And that was an interview we did just before airtime as
Father Jean-Juste was taken into custody. Kevin Pina is on the line with
us from Port au Prince. We are extremely concerned. He was asking us to
contact the Nuncio, to contact the Pope; he said that he could not get
in
touch with his Bishop. Talk a little bit about the concern here, and the
context Kevin Pina.

Pina: You’ve got to remember that on Monday a spokesperson from the
Haitian National Police had announced publicly on the radio that they
had
information, or that they claimed that they had information that
there were certain priests in the capital who are harbouring people who
are responsible for the latest round of violence that began after
September 30th, after the police fired on unarmed demonstrators, who
were
demanding President Aristide’s return. Literally hundreds of people
have been
arrested this week in massive sweeps, in joint operations between

Brazilian [U.N.] forces and the Haitian National Police. They have
targeted mainly the pro-Aristide, the poorest neighbourhoods in the
capital: La Saline, Bel Air, Martissant, Cite’ Soleil, [inaudible],
Delmas
2, Delmas 4, Delmas 30, Delmas 31, and Delmas 33. So, in a lot of
respects
there was a ‘tip off’ that this sort of thing was going to happen. The
police were making noises earlier this week. Father Jean-Juste had
heard,
he had told me that he had heard some of them say that that was why they
were arresting him. He said he wasn’t sure, but that he had heard that.
He
denied any involvement in it. He said, again, ‘anyone who knows me knows
that I am a man of non-violence,’ and there is no basis to these
charges.

Bernstein: We’re speaking with Kevin Pina; he’s talking to us live
from Port au Prince, where the attacks, the arrests, the beatings, the
false
charges, the undermining of democracy and the poor in Haiti continues,
unabated. This is another example of the nature of Bush policy. Do we
know
where Father Jean-Juste is now? Is there any hope that the Catholic
church
could intercede, could protect one of their priests here?

Pina: Well you’ve got to remember that the Catholic church is
itself highly reactionary in Haiti and highly polarized itself. The only
one who you could consider progressive among the hierarchy of the church
is Monseigneur Romulus. We have not heard from him, he is in Jeremie.
I’m
not even certain that he knows this arrest has gone down. A lot of
people
are in shock. The entire neighbourhood actually rose up as they took him
out. Rocks and bottles were thrown at the police cars as they left with
him. Based on what he said with your interview, which happened after I
talked to him, he was most likely taken to the Delmas 33 commissariat,
which is close to his neighbourhood, Petite Place Cazeau. From there, as
he said, he is more than likely now been transferred to the same
facility
where So Anne, the famous Haitian folk singer, who was arrested by
[U.S.]
Marines on May 10th, is being held in Petionville. There is a small
penitentiary there where they put they most high profile political
detainees, political prisoners if you will, up in Petionville. I would
assume, based on what he has said, that that is where they are holding
him
now.

Bernstein: Alright Kevin, we would like you to stay on this story,
we know that you will, and if you find out any information about his
situation now, or anything about how he’s being treated, we want to know
that. And finally we also [should] know, I believe you’d mentioned
briefly
in what you were saying, that the paramilitaries – the former death
squadrons – have now been allowed into the capital?

Pina: That’s correct. The former military entered into the capital
in force. Many in Lavalas are claiming that the United Nations is
basically complicit in a de facto political coup d’etat by allowing
the former military to come into the capital today in force.

Bernstein: And these are people who are former death squad activists
who were convicted of mass murders in some cases?

Pina: Many of them are. These are people who helped to overthrow
Aristide in 1991, in that brutal military coup, when Father Jean-Juste
was
forced into hiding back then. They came into the capital in strength
today, they were unchallenged by the United Nations; their spokesman
claimed that they already have several armed units in the capital, and
that they would begin operations against what they called ‘Lavalas
bandits,’ beginning tomorrow. Remember that tomorrow is also the 10th
anniversary of Aristide’s return and the restoration of democracy in
1994.
Many people, many observers on the ground view this week’s massive
arrests
and the arrest of Jean Juste in that context. That they were afraid that
tomorrow there will be large demonstrations mounted again on that
anniversary to demand the return of Jean Bertrand Aristide once again to
his rightful place as the democratically-elected President of Haiti.

Bernstein: Kevin, please keep in touch, keep us posted on this.

Pina: I will, thank-you Dennis.

Bernstein: The voice of Kevin Pina. And who in the world is
reporting about this? It’s as if it’s not happening. You’re listening to
Flashpoints.
.