12-16-05,9:59am
On Dec. 1, a North American doctor examined Haitian political prisoner Father Gérard Jean-Juste in jail and found that he had symptoms of cancer or an infectious disease.
Haiti’s illegal government arrested Jean-Juste, a well-known activist priest and supporter of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, as he was helping to officiate a funeral on July 21 (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 23, No. 20, 7/27/2005). Since then he has been imprisoned - for the second time since the Feb. 29, 2004 coup against Aristide - without formal charges.
Concern over Jean-Juste’s health has grown in human rights circles as he has complained of neck and back pain. He was severely beaten by a mob just before his arrest.
In his medical report, Dr. John Carroll reported “multiple enlarged lymph nodes” in Jean-Juste’s neck and underarms. Carroll also reported that the nodes had increased in size since he last examined Jean-Juste in September and that the patient had “an abnormal complete blood count.”
Carroll, the founder and medical director of Haitian Hearts, an NGO which treats Haiti’s children, noted that among the possible causes for Jean-Juste’s symptoms are “hematologic cancers, metastic cancer, and a host of infectious diseases.”
Carroll said that Jean-Juste needs “an extensive medical work up, CAT scan, and surgical biopsy of the cervical and/or axillary lymph nodes to determine their etiology (cause) and to begin appropriate treatment immediately.”
The doctor concluded that “many cancers of the blood have a good prognosis when treated early by specialists.”
Meanwhile, in Miami, the Haitian community and its supporters are organizing a massive march on Dec. 10 calling for Jean-Juste’s release from jail. The demonstration starts at noon from the Torch of Friendship in downtown Miami’s Bayfront Park. March organizers are expecting thousands to come out in support of the jailed priest, who organized on behalf of Miami’s Haitian refugee community during the 1980s before returning to Haiti in 1991.
For more information on the Dec. 10 march, call (305) 582-4846 or (786) 290-1750 or visit www.freejeanjuste.com.
