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February 23, 2005<br><br>
<b>RON VOSS WAS TAKEN INTO HAITIAN POLICE CUSTODY TODAY. <br><br>
He was questioned for six hours and asked to return tomorrow for more
questioning.<br><br>
</b>Today SANBA BOUKMAN was released by MINUSTHA. But Ron Voss now faces
Haitian police custody. <br><br>
There is a lot of panic within the Coup d'etat government right now. We
want all in our Network to understand that from now until the end of Feb.
more blood may flow and more bystanders and innocents will pay for the
sins of the coup d'etat government and their allies. Our job is stop it
by ringing the bell before someone else gets hurt. <br><br>
At two this afternoon, February 23, 2005. Five police cars pulled up to
Visitation house in Haiti. Twelve uniform police got out. Some of the
"police" wore masks. All guns were drawn. Also, there were
three plain-clothes policemen. They had to break a lock to get into
Visitation House. They did not knock. Eight entered the house with guns.
They were accompanied by a female judge. They took Ron Voss's American
passport and took him down to the Haitian police station for questioning.
He did not get handcuffed. <br><br>
For some hours this afternoon, many of us were worried for Ross' safety.
A member of the U.S. Embassy was called and went down to the police
station - the DCPJ. The arresting police, (though they said it wasn't an
arrest!) used as a ruse - said they found a .38 revolver an Ron Voss'
premises - to take him down to police station for questions. Sources
indicate the revolver belonged to the guard at Visitation House, who fled
when he saw the show of force and SWAT "police" arriving. This
was later verified. The gun belonging to the Visitation House' guard was
indeed a lawfully registered hand gun. Ron Voss was accompanied to the
police station by U.S. lawyer, Bill Quigley. <br><br>
At the DCPJ police station, Ron Voss was questioned for six hours. The
questions were all about pinning on him that last Saturday's prison break
was planned at Visitation House. Ross was released, but asked to return
tomorrow for further questioning. The Haitian "police" are
saying that the Parish Twining program, lodged at Visitation House,
<b>helped plot</b> the February 19 prison break. <br><br>
This is confirmed: Haitian police took Ron Voss down to the station
because they say last Saturday's prison break was planned at Visitation
House by the Parish Twinning Program. The Parish Twining Program is a
charitable organization, an NGO, that "twins," unites Catholic
parishes and programs from Haiti with others in the U.S. <br><br>
<b>Who is Ron Voss?</b> Ron Voss runs the Visitation House in Haiti. Von
Ross' Visitation House is a nice stop in Haiti for foreigners at the
scariest of times, to say the least about the post-Coup d'etat hell
Haitians are living in and trying to survive.<br><br>
<b>Latortue is panicking. </b>There is definitely a lot of panic in Haiti
right now because of last weekend's prison break and the mounting
pressure from human rights organizations denouncing the interim
government's actions against the Haitian majority and the former
military's executions of police officers and civilians. <br><br>
Many of Latortue's own political allies are asking that his government
immediately resign. Thus, they are looking for <b>scapegoats to blame for
the prison break . <br><br>
</b>Ron Voss has been living in Haiti very quietly, minding his business
and for a long time. He has been doing tremendous work with the people
since before the time of the Izmery brothers. <br><br>
He is generally known for running an apolitical lodging house with
heritage programs in Haiti. <br><br>
I tried to find the Visitation's website to share more details on Ron
Voss with you but only found this brief information (which may not be
updated): <b>"The Izmery Center works in collaboration with the
Visitation House in the capital. It houses the offices of Pax Christi
Haiti and the Haitian Solidarity Network of the Northeast; serves as an
educational center (literacy, library, scholarship) for the neighborhood,
and contains a medical laboratory with plans to add a tool bank and
FONKOZE office."</b> Also this link shows the tourist work (15
station of the cross) the Visitation house has done in the past:
<a href="http://www.olgp.net/ministry/haiti/memorial/mem.htm"><b>http://www.olgp.net/ministry/haiti/memorial/mem.htm</a><br><br>
</b>The contact information for MINUSTHA, Caricom, African Union, the
Haiti Desk, Local and National media and Congressional reps are
below.<br><br>
Please ask your congressional representatives to call the U.S. Embassy to
assure that Ron Voss and Visitation House are not caugth up in this hunt
for scapegoats to the prison break. This sort of intimidation is
oppressive to the extreme as it may stop future delegations, especially
delegations going to Haiti to report on government abuses, who mainly
stay at Visitation house from making the trip for fear of being caught up
in SWAT-like operations such as the one conducted at Visitation house
today by armed Haitian police. <br><br>
This sort of State-sanctioned behavior hurts all of us who work to
advance civil liberties and justice in Haiti.<br><br>
We demand a stop to this intimidation campaign against regular citizens,
of any race, who simply may be taking lodging in a place determined by
the authorities to be sympathetic to the "pro-democracy"
movement. <br><br>
Marguerite Laurent, Esq.<br>
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network<br>
February 23, 2005<br><br>
****<br>
<b>Contact information:<br><br>
African Union Headquaters<br>
</b>P.O. Box 3243<br>
Addis Ababa<br>
Ethiopia<br>
Tel: (251) 1 51 77 00<br>
Fax (251) 1 51 78 44<br>
website:</font><font size=3 color="#003399">
<a href="http://www.africa-union.org/" eudora="autourl">www.africa-union.org<br>
</a></font><font size=3>email for<b> President Alpha Oumar
Konare</b>:</font><font size=3 color="#003399">
KonareAO@africa-union.org<br><br>
</font><font size=3><b>CARICOM:<br>
</b>Call, e-mail, fax and write CARICOM: 011-592-226-9280,
webmaster@caricom.org<br><br>
Call, e-mail, fax and/or write Huntley Medley, Public Relations
Consultant, Office of the Secretary-General, Tel: (592) -226-9280-9 or
227-4671 , Email: hmedley@caricom.org.<br><br>
<br>
cc: OAS Leinaudi@oas.org, HunterJ14@aol.com, gunter.burghardt@cec.eu.int,
AntBar@oas.org, Argentina@oas.org, Bahamas@oas.org, Barbados@oas.org,
Belize@oas.org, Bolivia@oas.org, Brazil@oas.org, Canada@oas.org,
Chile@oas.org, Colombia@oas.org, Costa-Rica@oas.org, Dominica@oas.org,
Ecuador@oas.org, ElSalvador@oas.org, Grenada@oas.org, Guatemala@oas.org,
Guyana@oas.org, Haiti@oas.org, Honduras@oas.org, Jamaica@oas.org,
Mexico@oas.org, Nicaragua@oas.org, Panama@oas.org, Paraguay@oas.org,
Peru@oas.org, Republica-Dominicana@oas.org, StKitt&Nevis@oas.org,
StLucia@oas.org, StVnG@oas.org, Suriname@oas.org, TnT@oas.org,
Uruguay@oas.org, USA@oas.org, Venezuela@oas.org,
vze4ksd@verizon.net<br><br>
cc:<b> African Union</b>:<br>
Chairman of the African Union (AU), President<b> Alpha Oumar Konare</b>:
KonareAO@africa-union.<br><br>
cc:<b> U.N.<br>
Fax No</b>. (212) 963-4879<br>
Hon. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General<br>
United Nations<br>
United Nations Headquarters<br>
First Avenue at 46th Street<br>
New York, NY 10017<br>
212-963-5012<br>
inquiries@un.org<br><br>
<br>
<b>U.S. Ambassador to Haiti: James B. Foley<br>
Fax to:</b> U.S. Embassy, Port-au-Prince - 011-509-223-9038 or
011-509-223-1641<br>
State Department Haiti Desk, Washington - 202 -647-2901<br><br>
<b>Call:</b> U.S. Embassy, Port-au-Prince - 011-509-223-4711<br>
Anthony Beaver/John Mariz, State Department Haiti Desk - 202-
647-5088<br><br>
<b>Email: noriegarf@state.gov</b> (Roger Noriega Assistant Secretary of
State for Western Hemisphere Affairs;<b> BanksD@state.gov</b> (Dana
Banks, Human Rights Officer, U.S. Embassy, Port-au-Prince)<br><br>
<b>UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)<br>
</b>PHONE: 011.509.244.9650.9660<br>
FAX: 011.509.244.9366/67<br>
Or, Office of General Secretary (New York) - 212.963.4879<br><br>
<b>**</b> Kofi Annan's Special UN Envoy to Haiti:<b> Mr. Juan Gabriel
Valdes<br>
**</b> UN Military Commander in Haiti:<b> Lt. General Augusto Heleno
Ribeiro Pereira<br>
**</b> UN Human Rights Office in Haiti:<b> Mahamane Cisse-Guoro<br><br>
</b>Please Fax<b> the MINUSTAH office</b> Attention to the 3 listed
above. Better yet, send 3 separate letters addressing them
individually.<br><br>
<b>SEND COPIES TO AS MANY OF THESE PEOPLE AS YOU CAN including your
congressperson, local and national media (See contact for local &
National media at:</b>
<a href="http://www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/local-national-media.html">http://www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/local-national-media.html</a><b>
; U.S. congress at:</b> <a href="http://www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/uscongress.html">http://www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/uscongress.html</a><b>)<br>
</b>*******<br>
Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network<br>
******<br><br>
"Men anpil chay pa lou" is Kreyol for - "Many hands make light a heavy load."<br><br>
See, The Haitian Leadership Networks' 7 "Men Anpil Chay Pa Lou" campaigns to help restore Haiti's independence, the will of the mass electorate and the rule of law.<br>
<a href="http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html">http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html</a><br>
*******************<br>
Here is what you can do to help us help the people of Haiti:<br>
**********************<br>
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