24216: Hermantin ( news)Prominent Miami priest says Haiti peace unlikely without Aristi (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Sun-Sentinel

Prominent Miami priest says Haiti peace unlikely without Aristide



By Alva James-Johnson
Staff Writer

February 1, 2005

The United States must help restore former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide to power, or Haiti won't see peace, a priest and former political
prisoner warned Monday.

The Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, the former director of the Haitian Refugee
Center in Miami, made the statements to about 250 jubilant Aristide
supporters in Miami, after returning from South Africa where he said he met
with the ousted president and his wife, Mildred, last week.

Jean-Juste said Aristide and his wife are still working as honorary research
fellows at the University of South Africa.

"President Aristide is doing great physically," Jean-Juste assured the
crowd. "He said he'd like peace to come back [to Haiti], and the sooner the
better."

In the 1970s and 1980s, Jean-Juste was a prominent spokesman for Haitian
immigrants in South Florida. He recently spent seven weeks in a Haitian
prison after authorities accused him of inciting violence among Aristide
supporters, but was released last month.

Vice Consul Ralph Latortue, of the Haitian Consulate in Miami, said
Jean-Juste's comments Monday were not surprising.

"Opinions most of the time are very relative to your situation," said
Latortue, a cousin of Haiti's Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue. "I
don't think I would be happy either if I had been in jail for a period of
time."

Gerard Latortue's U.S.-supported provisional government replaced Aristide's
administration.

Jean-Juste has denied charges that he and Aristide are provoking violence,
and accused the interim Haitian government of persecuting its political
enemies. He said the U.S. government kidnapped Aristide, and forced him out
of office Feb. 29 although he was a democratically elected president.

Elections are scheduled for later this year, but Jean-Juste said Aristide's
Lavalas party would not participate unless Aristide returned, political
prisoners were released and human rights were respected in the country.

"We want constitutional order to return to Haiti," he said. "If America can
recognize his leadership and can help organize his return to Haiti ... there
will be peace in Haiti."

Alva James-Johnson can be reached at ajjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or
954-356-4523.


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