28505: (Jhudicourtb) Benefactor or Predator (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JHUDICOURTB@aol.com

Should Haiti worry about this type of benefactor?
from canada.com
Canadian kidnapped in Haiti has checkered past
 
 

A Canadian man who has been kidnapped in Haiti after recently being shot in
another abduction incident appears to have gone from running a bawdy house in
Ontario to running an orphanage in his adopted land.
Kidnappers are demanding a $100,000 US ransom and are threatening to kill
Edward Brian Hughes, according to Nelson Ryman, co-director of the Tytoo
Gardens
orphanage in the village of Simonette, near Port-au-Prince.
On the advice of the United Nations and Canada's Department of Foreign
Affairs, no ransom will be paid, he said.
Hughes, 72, was recently involved in another kidnapping attempt that cost him
his right arm. He was shot when kidnappers snatched Daniel Thelusmar, a
Florida-based missionary delivering supplies to the orphanage, in December.
The
pair's truck was surrounded by a gang armed with M-16s in Port-au-Prince.
Hughes was abandoned at the side of the road after being shot. His arm was
later amputated about six inches below the shoulder. Thelusmar was released
after his supporters paid a $10,000 US ransom.
After that incident, supporters urged Hughes to leave Haiti because of
increasing violence.
"To go where?," a Haitian radio station's website quotes him as saying. "My
life is in Haiti with my children. Who will take care of them if I go? I would
be ashamed to leave them over such a little thing."
Ryman said he thinks the kidnappings are linked.
"This is twice now in six months that he has been a victim of this kind of
stuff," Ryman said from his home in Zephyrhills, Fla.
"What's to say that if they turn him loose today, if they were paid a ransom,
that they won't (kidnap) him back again saying they want another $100,000 US?
Where does it stop?"
Thelusmar, who speaks Creole, is now helping to communicate with the
kidnappers, Ryman said. He is convinced the two events are related.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs said the department is keeping in touch with
Hughes' family and friends but would not provide any further details.
Hughes appears to have led a colourful and varied life. A man of the same
name and age ran a bawdy house for adventuresome couples near Hamilton, Ont.,
that was raided by police in July 1981. The operation was run inside a circus
tent. Nearly 100 swingers were charged in the raid.
That Hughes and his wife, Jeanette, were originally convicted and fined
$3,000. The Ontario Court of Appeal later upheld the finding of guilt but
granted
absolute discharges to the couple. Hughes would not have had a record for a
criminal conviction and would have been free to travel internationally.
A lawyer who represented Hughes in the case Wednesday viewed a photograph of
the orphanage worker held hostage in Haiti and recognized him.
"It appears to me to be the same person who was my client," Michael Caroline
said.
How Hughes would have gone from operating a bawdy house to an orphanage is
not clear. A 1988 press report said the Hughes had "traded their campground
for
a boat and headed for the Caribbean." Indeed, Caroline ran into his former
client on a plane headed for the Dominican Republic, which shares a border
with
Haiti, in the late 1980s.
The Hughes that Ryman knows is from Hamilton. He said his friend is an
accomplished sailor who spent several years travelling to Cuba, the Dominican
Republic and Colombia before settling into a maintenance job with the Canadian
embassy in Haiti some nine years ago. He said Hughes fell in love with the
country
and built a house in Simonette.
Ryman said Hughes used to give crackers and peanut butter to the hungry
children who stopped by the construction site as he worked on his home. He
developed a loyal following.
Ryman said he met Hughes during a church trip to Haiti nearly seven years
ago. Together, the men built up the Tytoo Gardens orphanage, he said. He said
about 20 orphans live there and the facility feeds about 125 local children
each
day.
Tytoo means grandfather or godfather, which is what the children call Hughes,
Ryman said.
"A lot of them he's raised from almost babies," he said. "They're really his
kids. The love that's there is immeasurable."
Ryman said he stays in Florida and concentrates on fundraising for the
facility, travelling there every few months, while Hughes lives adjacent to
the
orphanage and manages its daily operation. The orphanage is affiliated with
several Florida churches, Ryman said.
Ryman said Hughes is estranged from his family in Canada. His former wife has
remarried. He has several children but does not keep in close contact with
them, Ryman said.
Ryman said Hughes had alluded to having been in court in Canada several
times, but did not elaborate. He acknowledged his friend has "been a rather
hard
man for most of his life," and that his life "has been checkered in many
respects."
"I think he's a different man today," Ryman added. His hope is that Hughes is
returned unharmed and alive.
"He is just a Christian guy that is trying to do something good," Ryman said.
"Now he's decided it's time to try to give back."

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