25768: Wharram - news - Haiti kidnap horror (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From <bruce.wharram@sev.org>

   New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Haiti kidnap horror
BY LESLIE CASIMIR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, July 21st, 2005

With a wave of kidnappings threatening to destabilize his strife-torn Haiti,
André Saint-Louis did not want his family, including three stateside sons,
to meet the demands of thugs.

The defiant 75-year-old was gunned down this month in Port-au-Prince,
fulfilling a vow he made to his wife not to be taken for ransom.

"My father had already said to my mother that if anyone tried to kidnap him,
he would fight back, that he didn't want us to pay a ransom," said his son
Valerio Saint-Louis, 37, a video editor and community television producer
who lives in Baldwin, L.I. "He said he would never surrender, even if that
meant his death. I'm proud of him."

André Saint-Louis' body arrived yesterday at Kennedy Airport, 10 days after
he was slain. He was shot in the back after he managed to knock away one
would-be captor's gun, according to family members.

Although witnesses rushed to tell Saint-Louis' wife what happened, the thugs
nonetheless used the dead man's ID and cell phone to contact her, asking for
$200,000 ransom. When she asked to speak with him, they hung up, according
to their son.

In recent months, members of New York's Haitian community have been gripped
by a wave of kidnappings that have left them scrambling to pay large sums of
money for the release of their loved ones. Several people have had to
deplete their savings and borrow money to wire to the violence-racked
country, which is now preparing for national and local elections in the
fall.

In addition to Saint-Louis, who operated a mantra yoga center in
Port-au-Prince, last week a popular journalist was kidnapped and then later
found dead - bound to achair, burned, beaten and shot. Jacques Roche's
captors originally wanted $250,000, but then agreed on $10,000. His family
didn't get a chance to even deliver the money.

Vanilo Saint-Louis, 32, a graphic designer, called his father courageous for
not giving into the lucrative kidnapping business that is operating
virtually unchecked by the Haitian police and the 7,000-plus United Nations
peacekeeping force.

"My father is setting a new example because if everybody from the beginning
denied these kidnappers the money, this nonsense - this madness - would have
folded a long time ago," said Vanilo Saint-Louis. "The kidnappings are
getting worse everyday, right under the nose of the United Nations."

André Saint-Louis' family is too frightened to step foot in Haiti to arrange
the funeral there, so his service will be held Saturday at J. Foster
Phillips Funeral home inSt. Albans, Queens. His body will be cremated.

"People are scared," said Jocelyne Mayas, one of Gov. Pataki's immigrant
community liaisons, who helped the family make the flight arrangements for
the body. "People are sad and feeling really helpless."

Although Patricia Rhinvil does not know the Saint-Louises, the Flatbush,
Brooklyn, resident already said she plans to attend thefuneral on Saturday
because she has been affected, as well. Two weeks ago, her sister Nahomie
Petit-Homme, 20, was kidnapped on a bus.

"This is an issue that needs to be addressed," said Rhinvil, 25, an account
manager with a Manhattan marketing firm. "A massacre is happening in
Port-au-Prince, and this is a major cry for us to help."