The Church Council is Concerned About the Situation in Haiti

In the month of August, Seth Donnelly, a California high school teacher who was a member of the U.S. Labor/Human Rights delegation that was recently in Haiti, gave an eyewitness account of the human rights situation in Cite Soleil, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince.

In contrast to reports of the situation becoming "normalized" in Haiti, many of those who are poor or who supported the Aristide administration continue to suffer greatly and fear for their lives.

We were saddened to see footage from what appeared to be a clear abuse of force by UN troops on July 6.

We also heard about the imprisonment of Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a Catholic priest, who was accused of murder of a prominent journalist although he was in Miami at the time of the incident.

Father Jean-Juste who is ill and in solitary confinement needs your support and prayers.

In his homily of August 28, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit said this about Fr. Jean-Juste: "He is someone who has been overwhelmed by God's word and in spite of the fact that he's rejected.  The poor, who of course are the majority accept him, but the other priests...the wealthy people, they reject him, they laugh at him and they make sure he is thrown into prison where the conditions are horrendous.  And he suffers.  Evidently he has a severe infection of some sort that's debilitated him quickly.  But when we visited him last week, it was amazing....As you begin to talk, he gets energy.  He gets strength, and by the time we finish the visit, we say a prayer together.  He leads the prayer and challenges us to be strong, to be courageous, to work for justice, to bring peace into the world.  He's the one who is leading...."

The Church Council urges you to write to the United Nations and to the Bush administration calling for a full investigation of the deaths of more than 20 people on July 6 in Cite Soleil and to immediately call for the release of Fr. Jean-Juste.

Please write or call:

Condoleeza Rice

State Department Main Switchboard: 202-647-4000

To send an e-mail message to the Secretary of State, go to:

http://contact-us.state.gov/ask_form_cat/ask_form_secretary.html

Juan Gabriel Valdes

Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Haiti

Phone: 011-509-244-9650 or 9660

Fax: 011-509-244-3512

Louise Arbour

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

1211 Geneva 10

Switzerland

E-mail: ngochr@ohcr.org.