[Ppnews] Father Gerard Jean-Juste released for medical treatment
Political Prisoner News
PPnews at freedomarchives.org
Tue Jan 31 09:00:07 EST 2006
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
The Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org
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