Shooting after Pere Jean-Juste's Funeral Mass...June 18, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Shooting after Pere Jean-Juste's Funeral Mass...June 18, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Father Jean-Juste Fought Against Violence...Why Violence at His Funeral?
At the end of Mass, Archbishop Miot stood on the altar several feet from Father Jerry's body, and told the crowd to be orderly in the streets.
The previous YouTube video shows what I witnessed. About one minute after I turned off the video setting on my camera, the shots rang out. I had witnessed much love for Pere Jean-Juste and saw no violence until the shooting.
I thought the Haitian National Police handled the Mass very well and showed respect for all involved. Pictured to the right are people taking cover seconds after the shots.
After the slain man's body was picked up by the crowd to be carried to the National Palace, his little boy was screaming "papa".
Friday, June 19, 2009
A Tragic Killing in Port-au-Prince
This man was in charge of the Haitian National Police inside the Cathedral. In my opinion, he did an incredible job with a very tough situation inside the Cathedral. He and his men remained calm at all times and showed respect for Father Jerry.My people told me that five armed MINUSTAH soldiers showed up on foot in the street after Mass when the crowd was leaving with Father's body.
Who sent them? The HNP did not need them. The crowd did not need MINUSTAH.
Is Haiti a better place this morning with a long-persecuted Jean-Juste buried in the countryside next to his mother? Is Haiti better off this morning with the young Haitian man getting his head blown off yesterday?
Sunday, June 21, 2009
This Was NOT Necessary....
(Photo by John Carroll)
On June 18, 2009, Father Jeri's funeral was held at the Cathedral in Port-au-Prince.
See HaitiAction for the account of what took place just outside the church shortly after the funeral Mass ended.
MINUSTAH said a rock hit this young man....
I don't think so.
MINUSTAH should not have been anywhere near the Cathedral.
I had been at the church for three and one-half hours and saw no violence at all until MINUSTAH arrived.
The international press needs to cover this story accurately. The Haitian press was there too and needs to show the world what happened.
Haiti needs factual reporting from both "pro-Lavalas" and "anti-Lavalas" people. The truth has to be told by both sides, or no one has credibility. And if reporting is not credible, Haiti's poor will take the brunt of it again as people freeze up or become entrenched in their own ideology.
The "gwo neg" living in the two camps need to stop their incessant fighting. The main goal for everyone should be to help the poor.
And "citizen journalists" and bloggers need to do the best they can for Haiti. It would be great if all Haitians Twittered away about their life each day. But Haitians aren't Iranians. Poor Haitians are too busy, too sick, and too hungry to Twitter. They are simply trying to survive.
We should remember that Fr. Jeri constantly prayed to Saint Jude for his intercession in Haiti. The whole world needs to continue his prayer.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Miami Herald: Bullet Killed Man at Funeral, Not a Rock
I was in the funeral procession for Pere Jean-Juste.
We had come out of the side door of the Cathedral minutes before.
There had been no violence.
MINUSTAH should not have come to the Cathedral.
MINUSTAH should not have shot their weapons and given a peace loving priest's funeral a very violent end.
(Photo by John Carroll)
Posted on Mon, Jun. 29, 2009
Police: Haiti marcher killed by bullet in UN clash
By JONATHAN M. KATZ
Associated Press Writer
Haitian police say a demonstrator found slain after a clash with U.N. peacekeepers during a funeral procession was killed by a bullet, and not by a rock as peacekeepers initially reported.
But the police inspector who shared details of the autopsy report on Monday said ballistics tests are needed to determine who fired the fatal shot. The inspector who viewed the autopsy report spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the autopsy. He did not offer any additional details.
Opponents of the 9,000-member U.N. force are using the death to inflame passions against international troops stationed in Haiti since 2004.
The demonstrator, who remains unidentified, was killed June 18 as about 2,000 people marched with the casket of the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, an advocate for the poor who died in May after years of health problems. He was closely allied with ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
At least five Brazilian soldiers with the 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping mission entered the back of the procession near Port-au-Prince's Notre Dame cathedral on foot to arrest a marcher, who was later released. Other demonstrators threw rocks at the soldiers, who responded by firing at least eight shots into the air before leaving in a jeep.
U.N. peacekeeping spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe said Monday that the Brazilian soldiers had some weapons loaded with rubber bullets and others with 7.62-milimeter caliber live ammunition. In television footage of the clash at least eight shots can be heard. It is not clear if all were fired by the soldiers. No one else is seen holding a firearm.
"We are confident that the autopsy reconfirmed that our troops were not responsible for this death," Boutaud de la Combe said. She noted that preliminary information that the protester had been killed by a rock or other blunt instrument were incorrect.
Both the death and the clash that preceded it have only added to growing tension surrounding the U.N. troops. The day before the funeral other protesters also calling for their departure burned a U.N. police vehicle, one of a series of anti-U.N. demonstrations this year.
The U.N. and other diplomats have defended the soldiers' decision to enter the funeral procession on the belief that they were arresting a wanted criminal.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Autopsy
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| (Photo by John Carroll about 1 minute after the shooting.) |
When the shooting started during the funeral procession, somehow I was not surprised.
I asked myself: Who is shooting? But there was not much time to think much about anything. Mayhem ensued.
Father Jean-Juste's funeral procession had been peaceful up until then.
Only later was I able to document that the horrible shooting was done by MINUSTAH and a young Haitian man had died immediately. His head and face were almost ripped off by a bullet. His body lay near the side door of the cathedral that we had just exited.
He had committed no crime.
See Kim Ives article here.
This is all so sickening.
JULY 29, 2009
SECRET FUNERAL FOR A MINUSTAH VICTIM HAITI LIBERTE
"Justice. Verite. Independance."
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
July 29 - August 4, 2009
Vol. 3, No. 2
by Kim Ives
The young man who appears to have been gunned down by UN occupation troops after a funeral last month received an all but secret funeral himself on July 14 in Port-au-Prince because the priest and family were fearful of UN and Haitian government reprisals.
The victim has also been finally identified as Kenel Pascal, 22, of Delmas.
On the morning of June 18 outside the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, immediately following the funeral for Father Gérard Jean-Juste, troops of the United Nations Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) fired at unarmed mourners who shouted angrily at them after they roughly arrested a man in the crowd.
When the fusillade ended, Pascal lay dying on the ground just outside a cathedral door, blood bubbling from his head and mouth. He died minutes later. His body was carried by the mourners a half mile to the National Palace. There they left the body in the driveway, laying blame for the killing on President René Préval (see Haiti Liberté, Vol. 2, No. 49, June 24, 2009).
Pascal was originally misidentified as "Ti Charles," then Charles Désir, then "Roudy."
His death was not certified by the Justice Ministry until almost a month later on July 13.
Lavarice Gaudin of the Miami-based Haitian rights organization Veye Yo, founded by Father Jean-Juste, helped organize Pascal's funeral. Most of the arrangements were made by Ketchine Joseph, a Veye Yo sympathizer in Port-au-Prince.
"We had a very difficult time to find a church at which to hold the funeral," Gaudin told Haiti Liberté. "Many turned us away. They were all scared. Finally we had to get an Episcopal priest from Léogane to do the service, but he would only agree to it if there was no press, if his name was not used, and if there were less than 25 people."
The ceremony was held at Chapelle Paradis, a private morgue, in Delmas 31. Only five people signed the funeral record for "Témoignages de Sympathie." The only family members on hand were Pascal's sister, Gerda, and a couple of cousins. According to the death certificate, both Kenel Pascal's father, Mondesir Pascal, and his mother, Miriame Debir, are dead.
Afterwards, Pascal was buried in a Delmas cemetery.
The Vatican and Haitian Catholic hierarchy never offered Pascal's impoverished family any assistance for the funeral. Nor did they demand any investigation of the shooting.
"The Catholic Church shows its complete bankruptcy in Haiti," Gaudin pointed out. "When a mob beat Jean-Juste in St. Pierre Church in Pétionville in 2005, what was the church's compensation? They threw him out of the church. Now they killed Kenel on the Vatican's territory, just the same way they killed Izméry in 1993. Again, the church is silent and does nothing."
The MINUSTAH denied all responsibility for the shooting, saying that Pascal was killed by a "rock' or a "blunt instrument." Michele Montas, spokeswoman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, "categorically" denied that UN troops were involved in the killing.
However, Haiti Liberté has obtained a copy of the autopsy carried out by Dr. Rodrigue Darang on June 22. The report clearly states that Pascal was killed by a bullet which entered his right cheek and passed through his head, shattering his fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae and some teeth.
Furthermore, television footage from Tele-Ginen showed UN soldiers shooting with leveled weapons in Pascal's direction.
Faced with the autopsy, UN officials are now claiming that the size of the entry hole noted in the report - 0.5 centimeters - indicates a bullet caliber smaller than that used by UN troops.
Hundreds demonstrated in Port-au-Prince on July 28, the 94th anniversary of the 1915 U.S. Marine occupation, to demand justice for Kenel Pascal. UN troops have killed dozens of poor unarmed Haitians civilians since they arrived to take over from U.S., French and Canadian occupation forces in June 2004.
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