Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

    Richard,
    
    Of all the places I've travelled, the Dominican Republic was the
    saddest most depressed country I've ever seen.  It wasn't just the
    poverty (which is far worse than what I've seen in Europe and even
    Mexican cities and villages).  It may have to do with people being
    'spiritually' poor and well as 'materialistically' poor.  A feeling of
    gloom pervaded the air (perhaps a foreboding of what was to come).
    
    I've visited Haiti a couple of times as well, but it was a private
    island owned by a cruise line.  The native people there made a fairly
    decent living (by Haitian standards) off the tourists.  They paddled in
    by boat to the island, so I never actually got to see where they lived. 
    Guess the cruise line felt it better to keep that hidden less the
    tourists feel 'guilty' and ruin their vacation.  :^{
    
    Sadly,
    
    Ro
    

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Subject: Cardinal urges Bush to help Haitians
Date: 23 May 92 02:24:13 GMT
 
	BOSTON (UPI) -- Cardinal Bernard Law, recalling the ``sad'' treatment
of Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany before World War II, urged President
Bush Friday to allow all Haitian refugees to be brought to the United
States or other country.
	Law was reacting to a new Coast Guard policy of urging all Haitian
boat people still at sea to return to their homeland because the U.S.
immigration center set up at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is filled to
capacity.
	The Coast Guard had been under orders to take all such refugees to
Guantanamo Bay and to return only those fleeing for economic reasons.
Under the new policy, however, it will not block boats sailing for U.S.
or other shores if the vessels were seaworthy, despite the dangers of
the long voyage.
	Law, the spiritual leader of more than 2 million Catholics in eastern
Massachusetts, expressed ``profound alarm'' at the new policy. He urged
Bush to establish other camps, if necessary, to handle the continuing
exodus from Haiti, which was prompted by the military takeover in the
island nation.
	``I urgently plead with you on pressing humanitarian grounds ... to
cut through the legal and political gordian knot and make provision for
persons fleeing Haiti to be received aboard U.S. vessels and brought to
a processing center either in this country or in some Caribbean country,
'' Law wrote the president.
	``The sad memory of Jews being refused entry before World War II
should teach us that never again should we turn our back on a human
being pleading for our help and hospitality,'' the cardinal said.
	Law said he sympathized with the administration's tight budget
restrictions. But he said, ``It is imperative that we do what we are
well able to do, and that is extend a welcome to children, men and women
who are proving themselves willing to make a heroic effort to achieve a
better life in a free society.''

	Let the people of the world
	  charter flights, rent boats,
	  and create a civilian invasion.
	Let them come by the hundreds
	  to stand beside the Haitian people and say
	  "This situation is finished."
	Let the people come from all over the world.
	  Let the boats bring people to,
	  not carry refugees from, Haiti.
	If two or three thousand
	  come to stand with us and say,
	  "There must be an end to this injustice,"
	Then the United Nations
	  or the Origaniztion of American States
	  would not need their weapons.
	This is the greatest philosophy on earth,
	  to come and stand
	  in solidarity with sisters and brothers.
	People like you can do this, and in doing so,
	  you are fulfilling the mission of Jesus
	  to set at liberty those who are bound.

					-- voice from the Haitian people
					   (name withheld)

o	is [or was] a Roman Catholic Priest.

o	is a biblical scholar who studied Hebrew and Arabic, translated
	the Bible into Creole, the language of Haitians, and lived in
	Israel for three years.

o	speaks six languages.

o	before becoming President, survived at least four assassination
	attempts.

o	upon assuming office, served hundreds of homeless at his first
	Presidential breakfast.

o	refused his $10,000 per month salary, calling it "scandalous in a
	country where most people go to bed hungry."

o	as President, pushed adult literacy.


				- Syracuse New York Peace Council

Lt. General Raoul Cedras and Colonel Michael Francois, Chief of Police:

o	Francois is an alumnus of the School of the Americas, Ft. Benning, GA.

o	Cedras was trained by the CIA for a secret intelligence unit that
	engaged in drug trafficking and committed acts of political terror.
	[A US Senatorial candidate in the making]

o	The New York Times reported on 11/14/93 that the CIA "...paid key
	members of the junta now in power for political and military
	information up until the ouster of Aristide in 1991."

o	During the last three years the Coup leaders made money by trans-
	shipment of drugs and control of monopolies over utilities and staples.

o	During 1991-1992 documented human rights abuses numbered 9,134.
	Aristide's government presided over 0.2% of these, the coup
	governmant over 99.8%

    
				- Syracuse New York Peace Council

Here is a press release from THE NATION.

 Haitian Terror Group Promoted and Backed by U.S. Intelligence Says
 Article in NATION Magazine
 To: National and International desks
 Contact: Jonathan Taylor of THE NATION, 212-242-8400 ext. 210,
          or 212-242-8180 (after 5 pm); or David Lerner, 212-260-5000

   NEW YORK, Oct. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In a story due to appear on
newsstands this Friday in THE NATION magazine, journalist Allan
Nairn traces the connections between U.S. intelligence and the
notorious leader of the Haitian paramilitary group FRAPH,
Emmanuel "Toto" Constant.
   Nairn's reporting comes on the heels of a series of apparently
contradictory events in which the day after U.S. forces raided FRAPH
headquarters, Constant appeared at a U.S.-staged news conference
behind a guard of U.S. military police reading a U.S.
embassy-prepared statement.  As this NATION article shows, given
the history of C.I.A./D.I.A. with Constant and his paramilitary
force, the U.S. actions are consistent with its attitude toward
Constant and his far-right allies.
   Based on interviews with Constant and U.S. intelligence officials
who have worked with him and documentary evidence gathered by Nairn,
who previously authored a piece in the October 3 NATION disclosing
the plans behind the U.S. occupation, the NATION story begins to
uncover the history of the U.S. intelligence role in creating and
funding anti-Aristide forces in Haiti.
   NEW REVELATIONS INCLUDE:
   -- Constant recently worked for the C.I.A. as a teacher at the
Agency-run SIN (National Intelligence Service) which was responsible
for terrorist attacks on Aristide supporters.
   -- While working at the SIN, he was approached by U.S. Defense
Intelligence Agency attache, Col. Patrick Collins, who pushed him
to organize a front "that could balance the Aristide movement" and do
"intelligence" against it
   -- Constant's U.S. handler, Col. Collins, called Constant's (and
FRAPH's mission) to counter "the extreme" of Aristide
   -- Constant asserts that Col. Collins and C.I.A. station chief
Donald Terry "were inside the Headquarters (of the coup leaders)" at
the time of the anti-Aristide coup in 1991 and that their presence
there was "normal"
   -- The U.S. Agency for International Development (US AID) funded a
large multi-service clinic which 4 senior attaches known for murder
and torture worked out of (the Center for Development and Health)
  -- Former U.S. Haiti envoy Lawrence Pezzullo reveals that the
C.I.A. paid Evans Francois, the brother of the former police chief
Col. Michel Francois and now a Haitian diplomat working for the
military government in the Dominican Republic, where Colonel Francois
fled yesterday.
   -- The inside story of Constant's reaction to events during the
last week and his dealings with the U.S. in the hours between
Monday's raid on FRAPH headquarters and his dramatic Tuesday press
conference with the U.S. Marines.
    ------
   For interviews with Nairn and copies of the NATION article please
call Jonathan Taylor at THE NATION, 212-242-8400 ext. 210, or
212-242-8180 after 5 pm; or David Lerner at 212-260-5000.

 -30-

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% Subject:      Haitian Terror Group Promoted and Backed by U.S. Intelligence
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    Thanks for the contrasts on the Haitian leaders.