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HAITI'S BICENTENNIAL<br><br>
<b>GLOVER BACKS OUT OF HAITIAN CRUISE <br><br>
</b>Actor Danny Glover has pulled out of a Haitian bicentennial cruise
because he doesn't want to appear to support the country's<br>
U.S.-backed interim government.<br><br>
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES<br>
Sun, Aug. 15, 2004<br>
</font><font size=3 color="#003399">jcharles@herald.com<br>
</font><font size=3>Miami Herald<br>
</font><font size=3 color="#003399"><a href="http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/9404636.htm?1c">http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/9404636.htm?1c</a><br><br>
</font><font size=3>A controversial cruise commemorating Haiti's
bicentennial set sail from Miami on Saturday, but without its biggest
headliner:<br>
film star Danny Glover.<br><br>
The actor, who has been the driving force behind the increasingly
troubled cruise for the past two years, said he was pulling <br>
his support to make a political statement about Haiti's 5-month-old
U.S.-backed regime.<br><br>
'Due to the increasingly critical political situation in Haiti, which
resulted in a loss of life, oppression and incarceration of
thousands<br>
of Haitians, I have canceled my participation in `Cruising into History,'
'' Glover said at a news conference hours before the Royal<br>
Caribbean Cruise Line was scheduled to depart from the Port of Miami-Dade
for its seven-day Caribbean excursion.<br><br>
Glover said he did not want to appear to support the new government,
installed after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.<br><br>
''It's impossible for us to be neutral in view of the coup that took
place Feb. 29, 2004, against the duly elected government of Haiti,<br>
irrespective of our feelings about the strengths and weaknesses of
President Aristide,'' he said about his last-minute decision.<br><br>
The voyage involves 500 Haitian and African-Americans who spent between
$1,500 and $2,500, many of them at Glover's urging. <br>
It was an opportunity to celebrate Haiti's birth as a nation, while
rubbing shoulders with black luminaries such as Glover, famed <br>
dancer Katherine Dunham, National Urban League President Marc Morial,
Essence magazine Editorial Director Susan Taylor and poet<br>
Sonia Sanchez.<br><br>
Billed as a nonpolitical, historical pilgrimage to Haiti, with an
International Black Arts and Cultural Festival on board, organizers<br>
promised a daylong excursion through several northern Haitian towns
including Milot, where travelers were to mount horses to <br>
visit King Henri Christophe's historical San Souci Palace and a 19th
century fortress, the Citadel.<br><br>
But instead of historical ruins, voyagers will only see Labadee, the
private landing for Royal Caribbean that cruise organizer Ron <br>
Daniels calls a ``neocolonial enclave.''<br><br>
And in addition to Glover, they will have to do without poet Sanchez, who
also said Saturday she was canceling her appearance.<br><br>
Daniels announced last week that he was changing the trip's itinerary to
prevent the voyage from becoming a showcase for the <br>
new Haitian government.<br><br>
The cruise and its celebrity endorsers had become the focus of a pressure
campaign by pro-Aristide supporters in the United States <br>
who demanded that ''Cruising into Haiti'' change course and not be used
to ''endorse and legitimize the de facto government'' in Haiti.<br><br>
<b>Jonas Petit, a spokesman for Aristide's Lavalas Family Party</b> who
attended the press conference Saturday, said while the group <br>
welcomes the position taken by organizers, it's imperative that they
understand that the Haitian people still are not free.<br><br>
Haiti's political landscape has changed, he said, and now is not the time
to be celebrating.<br><br>
Daniels said while he feels badly about raising the expectations of the
thousands of people in Milot who had waited for two years on <br>
this visit, ''we have a responsibility to respond where we see injustice
taking place,'' he said.<br><br>
******<br>
Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership<br>
******<br>
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