27162: Hermantin(letter to Editor) Free Jean Juste (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Leonie Hermantin


Posted Saturday January 7, 2006

Free Jean-Juste

Kudos for the Jan. 2 editorial 'Prisoner of conscience' faces a deadly illness 
and Dr. Paul Farmer's Other Views column, Languishing and sick in a Haitian 
jail, published the same day about the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste.

The United States has great leverage over Haiti's government. But it has done 
little to help this leukemia-stricken man who is a hero to hundreds of 
thousands of Haitian Americans who think that President Bush has the key to his 
jail cell.

Why hasn't Bush called Jean-Juste a political prisoner and spoken to Interim 
Prime Minister Latortue about him? Jean-Juste desperately needs medical care 
unavailable in Haiti. His death would be a tragedy not soon forgotten everyone 
who values freedom.

STEVEN DAVID FORESTER, senior policy advocate, Haitian Women
of Miami, Miami