[News] Father Gerard Jean-Juste released for medical treatment

[Anti-Imperialist News]

STOP THE REPRESSION IN HAITI
by Brian Concannon

FR. GERRY RELEASED!

Father Gerard Jean-Juste released for medical treatment

<http://www.haitiaction.com/News/BC/1_29_6.html>http://www.haitiaction.com/News/BC/1_29_6.html

IJDH - Haiti — We have great news: Political 
prisoner Fr. Gerard-Jean-Juste, "Fr. Gerry" is 
right now on a plane in the air from 
Port-au-Prince to Miami. A cancer center in 
Florida has agreed to treat his leukemia, so he 
will get immediate attention for the cancer, as 
well as for the pneumonia he contracted this week.

Fr. Gerry was granted a provisional release, 
which requires him to return to Haiti after the 
treatment to face the charges still pending 
against him. The current charges against him are 
as baseless as the other charges which have been 
dismissed. Fr. Gerry's lawyers at the Bureau des 
Avocats Internationaux (BAI) have filed an 
appeal, asking for the charges to be dismissed. 
The appeals court can rule on the appeal without 
Fr. Gerry's presence, so it is possible that the 
case will be dismissed without requiring him to 
return to court. If he is forced to return to 
court, the BAI lawyers will continue to fight the charges.

In the meantime, Fr. Gerry will be relatively 
safe, and will have his leukemia treated. Doctors 
who have examined him are hopeful that his 
disease is at a stage where it can be 
successfully treated, but they cannot be certain without more tests.

Today's victory proves the Haitian proverb, "men 
anpil, chay pa lou-: many hands makes the load 
light. This mobilization has been by far the 
strongest and most persistent Haiti advocacy 
effort in the ten years that I have been involved 
in Haiti work. Everyone who called, faxed, wrote 
or emailed Haitian and US officials, everyone who 
signed a petition, everyone who forwarded 
information about Fr. Gerry to their church, 
their friends, and their family, should be proud. 
Close to a dozen human rights groups, over 50 
members of the US Congress, and hundreds of 
religious, political and human rights leaders 
from all over the world joined together to make this moment possible.

Together we demonstrated that the world does 
care, that justice is possible, and that 
collective action does work. No small accomplishment.

Fr. Gerry said in a letter from prison on Friday: 
"understand that I wish you all to extend your 
support not only to me but to as many political 
prisoners as possible wherever on planet earth. 
Probably, you are aware that there are quite a 
number of political prisoners around the world. 
Think of them and keep them in your heart.... I 
am very grateful to Amnesty International and to 
all of you for helping fight for the human rights 
of all political prisoners, here in Haiti and 
across the world. Let's keep the momentum on for 
justice, peace, love, and sharing to prevail all 
over the world as God wants it."

Today we should all take the time to pat 
ourselves on the back. But tomorrow we need to 
get back to work, to help the political prisoners 
that Fr. Gerry left behind in Haiti.

Peace,

Brian

Brian Concannon Jr. Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
Brian at IJDH.org - <http://www.ijdh.org>http://www.ijdh.org
PO Box 745 Joseph, OR, 79846 USA 541-432-0597

The Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste, a former Miami 
Haitian rights activist, is freed from a Haitian 
jail to receive medical treatment in South 
Florida -- but is required to return to Haiti to stand trial.


BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, PABLO BACHELET AND TRENTON DANIEL
jcharles at MiamiHerald.com

The Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste is finally free.Jailed 
for 192 days in his native Haiti, the influential 
Catholic priest and former Miami Haitian rights 
activist, walked into the arms of screaming 
supporters Sunday -- 51 minutes after his flight 
touched down at Miami International Airport.

''Free at last, free at last,'' supporters 
shouted as an ailing Jean-Juste, who has 
leukemia, walked out of passport control and into 
the waiting area at MIA's international arrivals terminal.

An hour later, Jean-Juste, 59, was admitted into 
Jackson Memorial Hospital where he will undergo 
treatment and tests. Haitian Prime Minister 
Gérard Latortue told The Miami Herald on Sunday 
that Haitian and American doctors had confirmed 
that Jean-Juste is suffering from leukemia.

A staunch supporter of ousted Haitian President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Jean-Juste is a harsh 
critic of Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government 
which he accused Sunday of being ''worse than'' 
the Duvalier family dictatorship. Francois ''Papa 
Doc'' and his son Jean-Claude ''Baby Doc'' Duvalier ruled Haiti for 29 years.

Jean-Juste's imprisonment had become an 
international headache for the Latortue 
administration, which until late last week had 
refused to give in to pressure by Haitian 
activists, human-rights advocates and others to 
free the priest. Jean-Juste, once viewed as a 
potential presidential candidate, became a cause 
célbre for Aristide's political allies, who 
continue to demand his reinstatement as head of state.

Jean-Juste's release is considered provisional. 
Under a deal, he is required to return to Haiti 
to stand trial on illegal weapons and criminal 
conspiracy charges, although by the time he 
returns there might be a new government, which 
could then decide to drop the charges.

His release comes just days before some 3.5 
million registered Haitian voters are expected to 
head to the polls on Feb. 7 to choose a successor 
to formally replace Aristide, who fled Haiti in 
February 2004 in the face of an armed revolt.

Jean-Juste was arrested in July on suspicion of 
involvement in the abduction and slaying of a 
well-known Haitian journalist and plotting to 
assassinate Haitian police officers. The charges 
were dropped two weeks ago, but a Haitian judge 
indicted him on lesser charges of illegal weapons 
possession and criminal conspiracy.

Vowing to continue to fight the charges against 
him, Jean-Juste, looking thinner and with a 
swollen neck, told The Miami Herald on Sunday 
that he hopes his freedom will prompt the release 
of other detained Aristide supporters, including 
former Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune.

''I feel happy and grateful [but] I cannot forget 
the other political prisoners left behind,'' he 
said as his sister Yvette St. Hilaire, 58, and 
Haitian activists embraced him. ``It's a very 
tough situation for them. I hope my release is 
the opening of the freedom door.''

Under the deal, Jean-Juste was released to 
receive medical treatment but must return to 
Haiti to stand trial. The deal was negotiated 
late last week with the Haitian government by 
influential Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, 
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee, and the U.S. State Department.

In a letter, Lugar urged Latortue to release 
Jean-Juste on humanitarian grounds. The letter 
was personally delivered to Latortue in Haiti by 
Thomas Shannon, the assistant secretary of state 
for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
'
'As you know, Amnesty International designated 
Father Jean-Juste a prisoner of conscience, and 
several of my congressional colleagues in the 
U.S. House of Representatives have called for his 
release,'' Lugar, of Indiana, said in the Jan. 19 letter.

During a trip to Washington late last week, 
Latortue met with several top State Department 
officials to talk about Haiti's upcoming 
elections and Jean-Juste's rapidly deteriorating health.

On Sunday, Latortue called Lugar to inform him 
that Jean-Juste would be flown to Miami.

''The man is sick, and we do not have the 
necessary medical facilities in Haiti to treat 
him. We want to give him a chance to get proper 
medical care,'' Latortue told The Miami Herald, 
saying the government did not give into pressure. ``We do it freely on our own.

The president [Boniface Alexandre] and I believe 
humanitarian laws are above national laws and we 
have to respect human rights. You cannot keep a 
man in jail without a chance to receive proper medical care.''

The State Department along with several U.S. 
lawmakers, including Lugar and U.S. Rep. Kendrick 
Meek, D-Miami, issued statements welcoming 
Jean-Juste's release. Meek said he visited 
Jean-Juste for 20 minutes Sunday night.

On the ride to the hospital, Jean-Juste recalled 
the past six months, detailing how a woman saved 
his life when he was attacked by a mob just hours before his July arrest.

He also talked about how in all of his years of 
fighting against Haitian despots, he had never 
``experienced such a worse government, a cruel 
government; worse than Duvalier.''

Still, Jean-Juste said he holds hope for Haiti as it approaches elections.
''Definitely, things will change for the better.

We have to get rid of these officials, de facto 
officials in power, that is the first thing,'' he 
said as the SUV in which he was traveling, pulled 
up to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

There, he was greeted by two doctors, including 
Paul Farmer, a prominent Harvard infectious 
disease specialist who confirmed that Jean-Juste 
has leukemia. Farmer, a Jean-Juste supporter and 
friend, examined him in jail on Dec. 23.

Farmer told The Miami Herald that Jean-Juste will 
undergo extensive tests and be treated for 
pneumonia, which he recently developed.

As word spread through Little Haiti that 
Jean-Juste was free, supporters cheered.
''That's great, that's great,'' said Bernard 
Frederic, 40, a music mixer at Notre Dame d'Haiti 
Catholic Church in Little Haiti. ``He helped a 
lot of Haitians in South Florida -- to get a 
green card or asylum. Thank God he's been released.''

CBS4Video/ Jean Juste's Arrival at MIA

http://www.cbs4.com/video/?id=12686@wfor.dayport.com


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