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[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser <torx@joimail.com>

People's Weekly World Newspaper
http://www.pww.org/

Priest’s arrest spotlights Haiti repression
Author: Tim Pelzer

October 28, 2004
 

Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a Roman Catholic priest, pro-democracy
activist, former Lavalas government cabinet minister and defender of
the poor was arrested by Haitian police on Oct. 13, becoming the
latest victim of the unfolding wave of repression that is washing
over the country.

Police surrounded the Church of Saint Claire in the poor neighborhood
of Petite Place Cazeau in Port-au-Prince, where Jean-Juste is pastor,
and arrested him on the relatively trivial charge of disorderly
conduct. Bystanders reported that police beat and then dragged
Jean-Juste through shattered glass and placed him into a waiting
police car. Police then shot into the assembled crowd, wounding three
children who had been waiting for a parish food distribution.

“When we saw the police start to hit the priest with their guns, we
started to yell for help,” said Erseline Louis, 14, who was shot in
the leg. “They started firing their guns and I was running to hide
when I got shot,” she told the New York Times.

Jean-Juste has publicly demanded that the U.S.-installed government
allow deposed President Jean-Betrand Aristide to return to the
country to finish his presidential mandate, which expires in 2006. He
has also condemned the violent repression unleashed by the current
regime in Haiti, headed by former Miami businessman Gerard Latortue.

William P. Quigley, a law professor from Loyola University in New
Orleans who is in Haiti to advise Jean-Juste’s lawyers, said that
Jean-Juste has still not been brought before a judge as required by
law, and is being kept in inhuman conditions.  Furthermore, while the
police said Jean-Juste was merely brought in for disorderly conduct
and for questioning, the justice minister said he was arrested for
importing weapons, even though no arms were found, and for inciting
the recent violence that has rocked the country.

Jean-Juste denies that he engaged in any criminal activity and said
that his arrest is a desperate ploy by the government “to frighten
people into silence who they believe do not support them.” He joins
the growing list of Haitians who have been jailed by the new
government, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, the former
minister of interior and the former mayor of Port-au-Prince.
According to Quigley, none of them have been given trial dates.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has sent a letter to Secretary of State
Colin Powell demanding that he intervene to ensure Jean-Juste’s
safety.

A human rights monitor based in Haiti, who wished to remain
anonymous, told the World that the repression “has really
intensified” over the last several weeks. Government forces and
former members of the disbanded military are arresting, killing and
“disappearing” more people than ever, she said.

“The international community, the Haitian and international media,
and Haitian and international human rights organizations are
responsible for what is happening right now,” the monitor said. “They
have made it clear that they will not condemn violations of human
rights and, as a result, the government and the irregular armed
actors working with it know that they can carry out any violence
against the population without any interference.”

She said Haitians perceive the United Nation’s peacekeepers as an
occupying force because of their unwillingness to provide security to
average Haitians and their acquiescence to many human rights
violations committed by the government.

Speaking of the regular police raids into neighborhoods known for
their support of Aristide and his Lavalas Party, she said, “The UN
hasn’t been entering into the neighborhoods with the police, but has
been resting at the outside.  This is a problem because the most
serious abuses occur inside the neighborhoods.”

She remarked that there is some armed resistance to the repression
but is unsure to what extent and its level of organization. “I am
hearing people say, ‘I am going to die anyway so I might as well die
defending a cause.’”

Many Haitians, she said, see the current period as worse than the
period of the 1991-1994 coup. “Then the government was not recognized
by the international community, whereas now it has full diplomatic
recognition, is being supported militarily, and is receiving
bilateral and multilateral aid.”

The author can be reached at tpelzer@shaw.ca
.