30425: (news) Chamberlain: Haitian boat tragedy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   CAP-HAITIEN, May 19 (AP) -- The remains of dozens of Haitian migrants
who died when their boat capsized off the Turks and Caicos Islands were
returned to their homeland Saturday and buried in a common grave, angering
relatives who were not given a chance to identify their loved ones.
   Family members clutching photographs of victims wept as the 59 bodies --
wrapped in black bags and marked "John Doe" or "Jane Doe" -- were unloaded
from a cargo ship in Cap-Haitien's seaport, two weeks after one of the
deadliest disasters to hit Haitians in years. Officials said the bodies
were badly decomposed and could not be readily identified.
   "God will welcome each one of you, our compatriots. You should not have
had to take to the seas and leave your country," the Rev. Hubert Constant,
the archbishop of Cap-Haitien, said after blessing the 28 male and 31
female victims.
   More than 160 migrants were aboard the overcrowded sloop when it
capsized May 4, flinging them into choppy, shark-filled waters.
   The bodies of 61 migrants were recovered and more than a dozen are
missing and presumed dead. Some had been eaten by sharks. Two bodies were
buried in Turks and Caicos.
   The 78 survivors have accused a Turks and Caicos patrol boat of ramming
their vessel as they approached shore and towing them into deeper water.
   The Turks and Caicos government is investigating but has said the
migrants were being towed toward shore when their boat overturned in rough
seas.
   The deaths provoked an outpouring of grief in Haiti and underscored the
peril migrants face when they take to the seas in rickety boats.
   "It's like trying to fly across the Atlantic in an airplane that hasn't
had an oil change in four years," said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer James
Judge. "It's extremely dangerous and not worth the risk."
   During a brief memorial ceremony at the seaport, a church choir sang
hymns as the bodies were placed in simple wooden coffins and loaded onto
trucks. As the coffins were driven to the cemetery, sobbing relatives ran
alongside, yelling out their names.
   "We came here to bring our brother home but the government hasn't told
us anything," said Max Metellus, whose brother, John Baptiste Metellus
risked the voyage after years of struggling to survive on meager earnings
from selling lottery tickets.
   The coffins were later buried in a common grave, stacked one on top of
the other, in Cap-Haitien's St. Philomene cemetery as hundreds of people
looked on from rooftops.
   "We never would have wanted him to be buried this way. This hurts us
deeply," Metellus said.
   Georgemain Prophete, an official in the northern Haitian city, said many
of the bodies were unrecognizable and were buried immediately "to spare
relatives the emotional burden" of having to try and identify them.
   Haiti's government declared a period of mourning and announced a
crackdown on illegal migrant smuggling in response to the disaster. Police
arrested six suspected migrant smugglers and seized two migrant boats in an
operation Friday, local delegate Georgemain Prophete said.