23816: (pub)Hermantin: Twice a victim: first in Haiti, then in the U.S. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sun, Nov. 14, 2004





Twice a victim: first in Haiti, then in the U.S.


The gun battle started around 5 a.m. with Haitian police and U.N. troops
entering the slum neighborhood of Bel Air, a stronghold for those still
loyal to former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Using bulldozers, the
police broke through barricades of burned-out cars.

But unlike previous raids into Bel Air that lasted less than an hour, this
one, on Sunday, Oct. 24, would persist for the better part of the day.

Soon after the fighting started, Joseph Dantica, 81, took refuge with a
handful of people inside the Church of the Redeemer. Dantica had founded the
Baptist church more than 25 years ago and was its senior pastor. He had
spent the better part of his life in Bel Air, and although his family had
begged him to move somewhere safer, he always refused.

''He was a very good man and extremely loyal to the neighborhood where he
lived,'' said his niece, acclaimed Haitian author Edwidge Danticat. ``Even
when things got very rough and difficult in Bel Air, he stayed. He stayed
through all the different regimes, serving the people of his neighborhood.
He was, in his own quiet way, trying to make a difference.''

By 9:30 a.m., police and U.N. troops using armored cars with mounted machine
guns, approached Dantica's church. The police wanted to go inside. Dantica
let them in.

They then took up combat positions on the upper floors of the church, as
well as an adjoining school the church operates. The new vantage point
allowed police to ambush a group of gang members in an alley below.

''A lot of them must have died,'' said Dantica's son, Maxo. ``The shooting
went on for a long time.''

A government spokesman said one police officer died in the day's fighting
and at least two ''bandits'' were killed. An unknown number of civilians
were wounded.

By early afternoon, the police began to withdraw, calling the operation a
success. A government spokesman told The Associated Press that Haitian
police would establish a permanent presence in the area to protect
residents.

Maxo didn't believe them. No sooner had the police left than he heard there
was a group of gunmen looking for him and his father. ''I told my father we
must go,'' he said. ``And my father said no. He would stay and talk to them.
He knew many of them since they were little boys.''

The next day, gang leaders came knocking on Dantica's door. They were angry,
accusing him of cooperating with the police and setting up the roof-top
ambush. According to Maxo, the gang members claimed 15 people died in the
alley and Dantica was going to have to pay for their funerals.

When the gang members left, Dantica knew he could no longer stay. For three
days he hid in a neighbor's house. ''When the gangs couldn't find him,''
Maxo said, ``they went into the church and took the altar out into the
street and burned it.''

On Thursday, Oct. 28, friends smuggled Dantica out of Bel Air and the next
day, Dantica and Maxo boarded a plane for Miami.

Although he provided immigration officials in Miami a passport with a valid
visa, he told the immigration official that he wanted to seek asylum in the
United States.

'The official told him, `Well, if that's the case, then you have to go into
the system,' '' Maxo recalled. ''I begged them, `Please, do not hold my
father, because he will not survive.' ''

Homeland Security officials sent Dantica to the Krome detention center along
with Maxo.

''I couldn't imagine why they would put someone his age in prison,'' said
Edwidge, who rushed to the airport hoping to retrieve Dantica. ``Especially
since we were here ready to be responsible for him.''

According to Maxo, when Dantica arrived at Krome, his high-blood-pressure
medication was taken away from him. Maxo and his father were placed in
separate housing units.

Edwidge hired immigration attorney John Pratt, who tried Monday to convince
immigration officers to release Dantica on humanitarian grounds. He did
arrange for a ''credible fear interview'' Tuesday morning.

Sitting in the waiting room before Tuesday's hearing, Dantica, according to
Pratt, said: ``They didn't give me my medicine.''

Before Pratt could find out more, they were called before the hearing
officer. Five minutes into the hearing, Dantica leaned forward and threw up.
''All of a sudden he started vomiting,'' Pratt said. ``He had some kind of
an attack. He fell back against the wall. He looked like he had passed
out.''

A medic from the detention center was summonedbut suggested Dantica was
faking his illness. ''He's not cooperating,'' the medic said, according to
Pratt. After a few minutes, the medic agreed to take Dantica to the
detention center clinic.

''The medic was very insensitive,'' Pratt said. ``His whole attitude was
wrong.''

Tuesday afternoon, Dantica was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Pratt was
told Dantica would be held overnight for observation.

''I asked the officials at Krome, could a family member go and visit him in
the hospital, and they said no, for security reasons,'' Pratt said. ``I kept
trying to tell them that having family members around him would be
reassuring for him, especially if his condition was serious. They kept
saying no.''

On Wednesday, Pratt was told that Dantica would remain at the hospital for
at least another day. Officials again refused to let the family visit
Dantica.

At 11 p.m. Wednesday, Pratt was notified that Dantica had died. ``I don't
know what he died of. But once they realized it was serious they should have
let this man see his family.''

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying Dantica ``died
of pancreatitis while in Homeland Security custody, which an autopsy by the
Miami-Dade County medical examiner's office revealed as a preexisting and
fatal condition.''

``It is unfortunate that Mr. Dantica died during the benefits application
process, and we understand his family's grief, but there is no connection
between the preexisting terminal medical condition he had and the process
through which he entered the country.''

Homeland Security would not explain why Dantica was taken into custody if he
had a valid visa, nor would the agency address claims that he had been
deprived of his medication.

Maxo said he knew nothing of his father's illness. ''All I know is that he
wasn't sick when we left Haiti,'' Maxo said.

Even in death Dantica is unable to return home.

Amid the escalating violence in Haiti, Maxo is afraid to take his father
there for a funeral. Instead, Maxo plans to bury him on Saturday in New
York, where they have relatives.

The final weeks of Dantica's life is the story of Haiti today, where good
people find themselves vulnerable and alone and easily forgotten.

''He was one of those people caught in the crossfire,'' Edwidge said of her
uncle. ``And that's true for the majority of people in Haiti; they are now
in the crossfire and they have nowhere to go.''