Pro-Aristide Priest Reportedly Detained on Return From Miami

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Pro-Aristide Priest Reportedly Detained on Return From Miami

Published on Saturday, July 16, 2005 by the Associated Press

Pro-Aristide Priest Reportedly Detained on Return From Miami

by Leonardo Aldridge

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Authorities have again arrested a fiery priest whose sermons on social justice electrify worshippers who see him as Haiti's future president, supporters and the lawyer of the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste said Friday.

They said the priest, a supporter of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was arrested Friday at Port-au-Prince airport as he returned home from Miami, where he led a protest against the interim government and U.N. peacekeeping force installed after Aristide fled a rebellion in February 2004.

Local radio stations interrupted nighttime music programs to report on the alleged detention of the Roman Catholic priest, though there were scant details.

"I don't know if he was arrested," Cabinet chief Michel Brunache told The Associated Press.

Police refused to confirm or deny that they were holding Jean-Juste.

The priest's American lawyer, Bill Quigley, said in an electronic message that parishioners had called to say they went to Port-au-Prince airport to meet Jean-Juste "but he never came out of the airport.

"They waited and waited, but were just told that Fr. Gerry was taken to a police station - they do not know where just yet," said Quigley's message.

It said the detention might be connected to a broadcast from Miami's anti-Aristide Radio Madoken, which it said on Friday broadcast a report claiming Jean-Juste was returning to Haiti armed with a suitcase full of money provided by Aristide for him to buy weapons and mercenaries. The radio station allegedly urged Haitian authorities to arrest the priest and "exercise a tight control ... as Gerard Jean-Juste is entering, is coming with that money from United States, as he'll enter Port-au-Prince, to lay paw on him."

Haiti's interim government earlier this year accused Jean-Juste of inciting violence and hiding pro-Aristide gunmen and jailed him for weeks before freeing him amid an international outcry that he be released if authorities could not produce evidence.

Hundreds of other Aristide militants and officials remain in detention for months, without charge or trial.

Quigley and other supporters urged "pro-democracy activists" to demand U.N. peacekeepers "safeguard the life and liberty" of Jean-Juste, saying he is in danger from Haitian police, especially some former soldiers from the rebellion who have been integrated into the police force.

The U.N. mission in Haiti could not immediately be reached for comment.

Jean-Juste and other Aristide supporters say they will not contest elections unless their leader is returned from exile in South Africa, but Jean-Juste admits countless admirers are urging him to run for president in November elections.

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