25447: Wharram - news - Montreal woman kidnapped in Haiti said she was tortured, burned with candles (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>



Montreal woman kidnapped in Haiti said she was tortured, burned with candles

Canadian Press

Monday, June 20, 2005

MONTREAL (CP) - A Montreal woman kidnapped in Haiti for 78 hours before her
family paid a ransom for her release said Monday she was beaten and burned
with candles on her feet.

"I saw death up close," said Huguette Goulet, 65. She said her hands and
feet were tied to a chair and a piece of tape was placed over her mouth,
adding she was hit in the face and on the head. Goulet also said she was
threatened with guns.

Goulet took off her shoes and showed several burn marks on her feet and one
on her leg.

A ransom of $300,000 US was reported to have been demanded for her release
but officials would not confirm or deny any money was paid. She didn't
reveal how much her family paid for her freedom.

Canadian diplomats were involved but did not participate in any direct talks
with the kidnappers.

She said money may have played a role in her kidnapping.

"I know that you have to take into consideration that I'm white, I'm
Canadian, that we are small business owners," she told a news conference.

"For these people, certain rats, when they see the possibility of making a
bit of money . . . they jump on people," she said.

She said she doesn't have any immediate plans to return to the impoverished
Caribbean country.

Goulet ran an Internet and long-distance phone service with her husband,
Dugue Jean-Louis, and an associate in Haiti.

The business, MLN Technologies, is incorporated in Canada but Goulet and
Jean-Louis had gone regularly to Haiti to run it from an addition to their
home there.

Goulet also taught computer science courses and promoted solar and wind
energy, giving speeches and demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere.
© The Canadian Press 2005


Copyright © 2005 CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.