28305: Holmstead: interview: Jean-Juste (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM:   John Holmstead



Who really killed Jean Dominique and Jacques Roche?

by Kevin Pina and
Father Gerard Jean-Juste

Kevin Pina recently interviewed legendary Haitian
priest and human rights activist, Father Gerard
Jean-Juste from Miami, Florida on the program
Flashpoints heard on the Pacifica network. The
following is a transcript of the interview made
possible by Kevin Saliger.

Kevin Pina: Good afternoon, this is Kevin Pina with
Flashpoints on Pacifica. Today's very special guest is
my dear friend, and a man who has fought tirelessly
for justice in Haiti, who has fought tirelessly for
human rights in Haiti, Father Gerard Jean-Juste.
Father Gerard Jean-Juste is currently in Miami, he is
undergoing chemotherapy. He was, of course diagnosed
with leukemia while he was being held without charges
in a Haitian jail. He was tested by Doctor Paul
Farmer, who then smuggled out his blood and diagnosed
him with leukemia. Finally the US, United
Nations-backed forces, the US-backed government,
installed government of Gerard Latortue was forced to
free Father Gerard Jean-Juste to allow him to begin
his medical treatment. Father Gerard Jean-Juste, good
afternoon, and welcome to Flashpoints.

Fr. Jean-Juste: Good afternoon Kevin, good afternoon
to all the listeners of Flashpoints.

Kevin Pina: Well, now you've had a little bit of time,
you've been in Miami. How are the treatments going
Father, how are you feeling?

Fr. Jean-Juste: It has been improving for a while, and
I feel better now. I thank God; I thank all of you for
your prayers, and for your support. And also, I'm
getting ready right now for the second cycle of
chemotherapy treatment. I have about five more cycles
left, so the first one went very well, and I hope the
second one will go well too, and the other ones, so
they hope within five months I may recuperate pretty
good.

Kevin Pina: Now I now that, in theory, your case is
still pending in Haiti, but I'd like to get into that
a little bit, particularly in light of the fact that
there's been a lot of talk lately by Reporters Without
Borders, and by the widow of Jean Dominique lately,
raising the question of Jean Dominique, in particular
the involvement of Lavalas in the murder of Jean
Dominique; and I can't help but think of the
parallels, in that, you of course are accused of being
involved in the kidnapping and the murder -- a
preposterous accusation of course -- and the murder of
Jacques Roche. Jacques Roche was a reporter who was,
really, I guess a sort of slanted reporter, I guess
there is another term for it, a reporter who worked
with the Group 184, which was, of course, the
opposition group that helped to oust President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004. But
Father, I don't think that we ever really heard from
you. How did you feel when you first heard this
preposterous accusation against you? I know you must
have felt it was preposterous.

Fr. Jean-Juste: Definitely, definitely, it was
ridiculous to charge me with such a preposterous
accusation. I was in Miami on business, and then I
returned to Haiti on the 15th, two days or three days
after the Jacques Roche assassination. So I had
nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Jacques Roche.
Of course, now they are looking for a way to get rid
of me, to shut my mouth, and also to stop Lavalas from
participating in the election, in order for them to go
to the elections and carry all the posts. But,
unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, within
time the case of Jacques Roche has been dying --
inaudible -- because the search found nothing about
us, they dropped the charges. But I would like to see
Jacques Roche obtain justice, in the sense that they
should try to find the true killers and go after them,
and bring justice to the case. But now we have to ask
the question: who was the true killers of Jacques
Roche? Because it seems to me this is a political
killing in order to capitalize, in order to benefit
out of the exploitation of the death of Jacques Roche.
And this is the beginning of what we call the "arming
of ti machet." That was the first in a series where
we've been attacked at the church, it was something
plain, by some officers of the de facto government,
and later on we discovered that the death squad was in
full speed going after Lavalas people, even at the
soccer game, organized, or sponsored by the USAID,
where so many Lavalas people have been assassinated
and killed in cold blood. So I guess there was a --
inaudible -- going on, and they were looking for a way
to trap us Lavalas, and put everything on our back,
and then get rid of Lavalas. So they have failed,
Lavalas has survived, and now we hope we will keep
moving forward, obtain justice, not only for myself,
but for the other political prisoners, and for
everyone else accused falsely in the case.

Kevin Pina: It seems so hard though to figure out the
truth and to be able get justice, when people seem to
politicize incidents like this, and use it as a tool
of political persecution against those who are
associated with Lavalas. Of course there's the most
recent example of your own where you were not involved
with Jacques Roche, but yet we know that the minister
of culture under the Latortue government got up and
accused you personally, accused Lavalas of
involvement. Without any proof it was printed in the
media, in the mainstream media and in the Haitian
press, and there were very few questions raised as far
as the validity of it until you were finally released
when the charges were dropped. But I can't help but
also think about the Jean Dominique case.

And now I hear about Michelle Montas, who of course I
have respect for, and I hear Reporters Without Borders
who I have very little respect for, bringing up the
Jean Dominique case again. But I also remember when
those same forces had accused President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide of having given Senator Dany Toussaint the
order to have Jean Dominique, Haiti's most famous
journalist, assassinated. I remember quite clearly,
everyone, the political line was President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide gave Senator Dany Toussaint the
order to kill Jean Dominique. And yet, Senator Dany
Toussaint, in the recent presidential elections, ran
as a candidate for the presidency, and nobody said a
word about it again. But yet the damage had been done.
Father, can you help us to understand how these sorts
of mysterious murders are used for political reasons,
for a tool of political persecution against Lavalas,
how accusations are made, peoples' lives are
destroyed, and then suddenly we find out that what
they told us was the truth, wasn't the truth.

Fr. Jean-Juste: Yeah, it is unfortunate Kevin that in
Haitian politics, some politician can do anything to
blame, or to condemn the opponent, the adversaries.
So, this is a very bad practice. It reminds me of the
tactic on the international level, once in awhile we
see that whenever they want to create a problem for a
president, for a party, for a group, they manage to
get somebody killed, and then they manage to blame
some group they want to get rid of. In French we
always say that -- speaking in French -- we say that
whenever we want to get rid of somebody, just look for
an alibi, look for a case we hear of murder, and put
it on the back of the person, and then we make
propaganda about it. So it is unfortunate. And in the
case of Jean Dominique, Jean was a Lavalas, strong
Lavalas, and helping the peasants, helping the poorest
ones. And who should profit off the killing of Jean?
Who should profit off getting rid of such a great
journalist? You understand, so they use Jean to put
pressure on the Lavalas government. It's like having a
family, where someone will try to kill the son or the
daughter of the family, and now try to blame the whole
family for the killing. It is ridiculous. So in that
sense, we are putting it so Jean Dominique could
obtain justice. But I think that Reporters Without
Borders is just using the case for their own purpose.
Understand that the last three years we heard nothing
about the case. Why is it now coming back again on the
scene? It seems that every time a Lavalas, comes back-
is running, they try to bring up something in order to
stop the government of the people.

Kevin Pina: And of course Reporters Without Borders
said absolutely nothing, or very little about this
thing of Abdias Jean. You know we don't know, there's
no clear evidence who killed Jean Dominique, but we
know that there were eyewitnesses who say that the
Haitian police summarily executed Abdias Jean in
January 2005, in the neighborhood of Cite de Dieu. We
know that for a fact.

Fr. Jean-Juste: Yeah, that's true. Unfortunately, this
is the type of reporting we have coming from France.
And understand that some French officials have been
helping some Haitian students in order to make them
rise against the Lavalas government all the time. And
because President Aristide was apparently asking for
France to repair it, to repair, to uh -

Kevin Pina: Give reparations.

Fr. Jean-Juste: - for reparations, and they [owe] 22
billion dollars to Haiti, and France refused, and in
that case, I guess Reporters Sans Frontiers is trying
to think ahead, to make us forget what we are looking
for. We're looking for reparations, we're looking for
restitution, and I think its about time that France
stop- and deal frankly with the issue, otherwise, they
cannot understand the issue. We're still alive, and
probably after Jacques Chirac or some other
government, we'll still continue to demand reparations
and restitution, and we will gain justice someday.

Kevin Pina: Now you know, sometimes it almost seems
like a cultural war for me. When I see the attacks,
the character assassination on leadership of Lavalas,
when I see the attempt to destroy the reputation of
Lavalas, when I see the attempt to paint it with a
wide brush stroke, that it was a violent movement at
the behest of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the dictator of
Haiti, all of this sort of propaganda machine within
culture. And a latest example is this film that was
just released, which I haven't seen yet, but the main
theme of it, its called Ghosts of Cite Soleil, its
produced by the son of Jorgen Leth, Asgar Leth. Jorgen
Leth of course was the former Danish honorary counsel
to Haiti, who had to resign because he had written a
book that detailed his sexual exploits with his
17-year-old house servant, and that created a very
moral uproar and he had to resign from that position.
But his son Asgar Leth now has produced a film called
Ghosts of Cite Soleil, in which he now chronicles the
exploits of two gang leaders in Cite Soleil called
Tupac and Billy. And according to this film, there are
these phone calls that are made reportedly, in this
film, that say that they are being made by those close
to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is getting leadership
to the gangs in Cite Soleil to go out and kill the
opposition. Father Gerard Jean-Juste, I've never asked
you this question before: what is your opinion about
the accusations that have been leveled against
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, that he was using the state to
sponsor violence against the opposition in Haiti?

Fr. Jean-Juste: Well its completely false, its
completely propaganda, its completely unjust doing
that to President Aristide. The president was elected
by the people, the president was well-loved by the
people, by most Haitians, as the president was being
so good to the poorest ones in Haiti by offering
education to everyone, regardless that the
international community had stopped all aid, all
assistance to President Aristide as well as President
Preval in the past; and these presidents, loved by the
people, had managed to offer maximum services to the
people. And that is the reason that now we have so
many people coming out, still supporting these Lavalas
presidents. So I guess the enemy should take a lesson,
instead of trying to destroy all those who want good
for the grassroots, who want good for the people in
general, who want good for everyone in general, rich
or poor, who want possibilities for the poor, want -
going after these good Haitians; and I think they
should, instead, try to find ways to bring cooperation
and help us better the life of the people. That's the
way how I see it, but unfortunately we have a long way
to go to make these people, to make the enemies of the
Haitian people understand that. Its not the proper way
to live, its not the proper way to operate, and they
should come on the side of the people. So we hope with
our prayers, with our discipline, we shall convince
them, someday they will change. That's why hope, or
otherwise I'll see why people who are educated, who
are supposed to know better, will go in a way of --
inaudible -- that leads to the assassination of so
many Haitian brothers and sisters. And President
Aristide, he is loved by the Haitian people, not
because he is President, or because he has done
something great, its because he has shown complete
love for the people. Poor people can enter the palace
and eat with the president, and party with the
president, as well as rich people. So President
Aristide has been opening his arms and heart to
everyone. So at the moment that the people have tasted
this type of service, this type of offer coming from
the president -

Kevin Pina: Open government.

Fr. Jean-Juste: - from the government -- you can do
whatever you want, they will give their life for the
movement, because the movement is in their advantage,
giving them more dignity, and more hope, and improve
their living. So that's the best way to operate. The
best way to operate is completely to come with some
services that allow people to receive basic human
needs. So this is the best way, and you're going to
have the Haitian people with you forever. But the
other ways, exploiting them, killing them, and telling
them nonsense -- they won't accept any of that
nonsense.

Kevin Pina: You know Father, there seems to be a
revision of history going on as well. People seem to
be wanting to sweep under the rug what life has been
like in Haiti the past two years, which I can only
describe as a human rights hell. But I wonder if you
could just help our listeners to understand, if you
could describe, define what the last two years have
been like in Haiti before the elections, after the
coup against Aristide, February 29, 2004. How would
you describe that period of history, Father.

Fr. Jean-Juste: Well as you just were referring, it
was hell in Haiti, cause, imagine that we had a
democratic government functioning, and in effect,
within the international community, they come together
and, with some putchist leaders, coup leaders, and
they get rid of this elected president. And that has
been quite a blow to us Haitians. So many innocent
people have been killed for nothing, and the people
who have survived have received no services at all,
and all the public places that were built, to serve
the people, to welcome them -- the parks, the public
institutions in education, meant to serve the people
-- everything has been either destroyed or
disappeared. And so the de facto government that has
been imposed on us the last two years has received
more assistance from that sector of the international
community -- from the international community at
large, I should say -- and has done nothing for the
people in concrete. Look at Haiti now: they are still
without electricity, no woods, and no food for the
people, and -- inaudible -- it's very expensive. And
on the human rights level forget it. The jails are
overcrowded with innocent people, most of them Lavalas
people. And so this is a situation where they have
tried to force a government in the throat of the
people, and the people have stood up and thwarted
them. So I think we have a great lesson today, and
Haiti should never, never live such a sad, hellish
moment, like we've had the last two years, in its
history. So we have to find ways now to make democracy
a growing, and find ways to make sure that human
rights of all in Haiti are respected, and find ways to
correct whatever wrong has been done by the previous
de facto government, and move ahead to see if we can
bring as many Haitians -- to bring them together, as
many as possible, and to rebuild this beautiful
country God has given us. So that's the way how I see
it, because it is true that I'm not able to speak
more, but you know, in the condition I'm now, I'm in
the middle of treatment and I'm taking a lot of
medication right now.

Kevin Pina: I understand Father. This is Kevin Pina on
Flashpoints on Pacifica, our guest today is Father
Gerard Jean-Juste. Now Father they've set you free to
undergo chemotherapy for lymphatic leukemia, which of
course is very dangerous. They had held you to the
point where it had become life-threatening, and of
course your treatment had to commence immediately. But
technically you're still a political prisoner, because
technically after your treatment you're supposed to
return to Haiti. Is that right?

Fr. Jean-Juste: Yes, I'm looking forward to returning
to Haiti. As far as my case is concerned, in order to
send me for treatment the government wanted to pardon
me. I said, what have I done to deserve a pardon? So I
am the one who went on appeal. I'm going on appeal,
and I would like to win the case all the way, all the
way, and I won't back off until I receive justice from
the government of Haiti, probably now would be under
government under Preval administration, yeah.

Kevin Pina: Well I can't thank you enough Father
Gerard Jean-Juste. God bless you sir and thank you so
much for your time. Please take care.

Fr. Jean-Juste: Thank you very much Kevin. My greeting
to all the listeners, and I hope God bless every one
of us. Thank you.

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