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24812: Hermantin (News) Florida hears louder pleas for Aristide



leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Florida hears louder pleas for Aristide
By Alva James-Johnson
Staff Writer
April 17, 2005

Supporters of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have turned up the volume on their call for his return to the country, summoning exiled former government officials out of the woodwork and sparing no government in their path.

On Thursday, the coordinating committee for Fanmi Lavalas party held their first news conference in Miami since Aristide's departure in February 2004, calling on the United Nations to release political prisoners, restore constitutional order and return Aristide to power.

Participants included Angelot Bell, a former official in the Interior Ministry; Mario Dupuy, a former secretary of state, and Maryse Narcisse, the former cabinet president.

Protesters have demonstrated at the Canadian, French and Haitian consulates to denounce the countries' support of what they described as "massive repression being carried out by the [interim Haitian] regime." They say Latin American countries participating in the United Nation's stabilization mission are next.

"Things are horrible in Haiti right now, and something has to be done about it," said Jack Lieberman of the Haiti Solidarity Committee, a Pittsburgh-based advocacy group. "We decided to go to the consulates because we think there's a conflict between what the United Nations claims it's doing and what it's doing."

In the year since Aristide's departure, demonstrations by his Fanmi Lavalas party and other organizations have been sporadic in South Florida. But recent events in the country, including reported attacks against former Miami priest, Father Gérard Jean-Juste, have galvanized Aristide sympathizers.

"Tragically they're supporting mass violations of human rights, and are helping to maintain the infrastructure that every day is oppressing the Haitian people," Lieberman said.

Canadian and French troops were part of the U.S.-led stabilization effort that began February 2004 when Aristide was forced out of the country during an armed rebellion.

Ernesto Loignon, the Canadian consul in Miami, said the country pulled out its troops when the United Nations took over the mission, but Canadian civilian police still remain to train the Haitian police.

As for the protests, Loignon doesn't understand why the consulate is a target, and he asked whether the picketers were aware of the $180 million that his country is pouring into Haiti.

"They have the wrong address," he said. "There's a transitional government in Haiti at the moment and that should be the address."

The interim Haitian government, meanwhile, has denied the charges of human rights abuses.

Ralph Latortue, Haiti's vice consul in Miami and a cousin of the prime minister, said the protests don't represent the sentiment of the majority of Haitian people. He said picketers demonstrating at the Haitian Consulate have been holding professionally designed signs. Stopping short of directly blaming Aristide for the demonstrations, Latortue said "I guess these are very well-financed protests."

But organizers said the picketing is a grass-roots effort, drawing people who disdain the Latortue government, want Aristide returned to the country and think the interim government is persecuting his supporters.

Juste, a prominent Haitian activist and Aristide supporter, was arrested by the interim regime in October and released seven weeks later.

Juste's supporters said he was attacked a couple of weeks ago at Sainte Claire's Catholic Church, located in the poor neighborhood of Delmas, Haiti. They said the United Nations Stabilization Mission to Haiti declined to respond to his call for help after a recent attack.

In the meantime, former Aristide cabinet members such as former Prime Minister Yvonne Neptune and Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert remain in prison.

Lieberman, chairman of the Haiti Solidarity Committee, said he worked with Juste at the Haitian Refugee Center in Miami before the priest left for Haiti. He helped organize a group last year to campaign for Juste's release from prison, and the group evolved into the new committee.

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


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