The road is long and hard, his shadow gave us shelter, rest and comfort. But now, he’s gone. He did not deserve this end - li kite rès la pou nou menm – he’s left the rest to us.

I had thought after living through two US-sponsored Coup D’etats in Haiti, their death squads’ persecution of the Haitian populace; after hitting our heads against the wall of media lies and State Department spins on the second foreign-ouster of President Jean Bertrand Aristide; after advocating for the many still languishing in UN-occupied-Haiti jails since the 2004 Bush Haiti Regime Change, and meagerly comforting those in exile without papers, giving voice to the hurt and humiliation of the Haitian struggle, enduring the vilifications of the rich, pretentious but ignorant, the charity of the so-called “well-intentioned” and after living through decades upon decades of helplessly watching Haitians capsized on overloaded boats in shark-infested waters, asylum, equal treatment and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) still denied, I had thought, after all this, we-Haitians have surely exhausted all tears.

But the circumstances that herald the death of Father Gerard Jean Juste’s death prove there are still some tears left. From Miami, to Canada, to New York, to Haiti, the sorrow flows. And I cannot, right now, on the day after his death, put the right words together that would make sense of the senseless - the heart-wrenching persecution and coup d’etat imprisonments that led to the deterioration of his health, subsequent hospitalizations and then his death. How do we tell the world about Father Jean Juste? How do I tell of his kindness to a young Haitian-American lawyer, fourteen years ago, in Haiti, who knew nothing about the journey she was about to undertake, but which he had already mastered. How do we give meaning to his life and works? His tireless advocacy for immigration rights for 15-years in Miami before he left in 1991 to return to Haiti and to endure, with the people of Haiti, two post-Duvalier coup d'etat persecutions. Perhaps it’s just as well that I simply sank my head in my hands, let the headache pounding in my skull rage on and the tears fall. They killed him. I’m so tired for us all. I’ve not the words, except to say we shall fight from one generation to the next until Dessalines’ children and lands are free, its resources benefiting Africa’s child.

But, of course, that’s not enough. Father Jean Juste did not deserve the suffering visited upon him, especially these last five years of Haiti’s nightmare. He surely now requires that we all stay strong. For he said, before he died, that he’d left “the rest to us” – “Mwen kite rès la pou nou menm.” So, you cannot imagine how thankful I am to lift up my head and share the tribute below with you, in gratitude. Yes, our grief must wait, for he left the rest to us, as he said. And a brilliant man that we, at Ezili’s HLLN admire and are privilege to call friend, mentor and supporter, has indeed written a sound introduction and tribute, to the extent that that’s even possible at all, to honor this great soldier of peace and justice, our Gerard Jean Juste. So, what I can do is stop crying for all that we’ve lost and are losing every Haitian day under UN-occupation, endless IMF/WB debt, foreign domination, pillage and containment-in-poverty, and translate this tribute from the French original into English, not word-for-word, but with my heart.

The essay below was written on May 27, 2009, the day of his death, as a tribute to Father Jean Juste by the Haitian lawyer, scholar and our honored friend, Professor Bell Angelot, of the Haitian Center for Research and Social Science Investigations. The original French is attached; any errors of translation are solely that of the undersigned, so I urge you to refer to the original for proper sourcing.

Condolences:

Lavarice Gaudin and all at Father Jean Juste's Veye Yo organization in Miami, you are in our prayers. Lavarice we hurt for your personal lost of a man whose journey you shared on a daily basis. Sincere condolences also to all of Haiti’s peoples, at home and abroad, but especially the persecuted in Site Soley, whose massive demonstrations against the 2004 coup d’etat, the Latortue Boca Raton regime and President Aristide’s exile and deportation from Haiti, Father Gerard Jean Juste, led.

We at HLLN, share all your tears, your sorrows and extend our deepest condolences to you and his personal family, brothers, sisters, friends and to all, of every nationality and creed, who stood in solidarity with Haiti. We at HLLN, who helped campaign for Father Gerard Jean Juste’s release from prison twice, we who have dwell under the shadow of this mighty Haitian soldier for peace, for inclusion and for justice know that Father Jean Juste's life and struggles touched and inspired folks worldwide. We send our condolences to Bill Quigley, the white American lawyer, one of Father Jean Juste's best friends, who kneeled in prayer with Père Jean Juste in that Church as the coup d'etat folks, brought to power by Bush Regime change, beat and spit on them both, right before the UN soldiers put Father Jean Juste in handcuffs and cast him into the prison that would destroy his health and thus eventually his life. We recall, it was Dr. Paul Farmer's sneaking into that prison to take blood samples that would eventually prove Father Jean Juste required immediate medical attention for Leukemia and thus had to be released from his second unlawful incarceration. We recall the lone Haitian woman in that Catholic Church, filled with well-dressed Christians, who prevented Jean-Juste's death that day of his second arrest on trumped-up accusations because she threw her body on top of Father Jean Juste as he was being pummeled bloody. We recall too much to mention with this pounding headache and sorrow.

But suffices to say, we recall that no Catholic priests or other spiritual leader or Christian pastor of the stature of Gerald Jean Juste in Haiti stood with the people of Haiti in their darkest of days, after Bush Regime Change 2004. Father Gerald Jean Juste risked the guns of the US Marines, UN troops, Haitian coup d’etat police, the dangers of their bullets, arrests and censure to walk with, and suffer with the disenfranchised and vilified residents in the populous neighborhoods of Haiti. He would not let the people stand and suffer alone. In the end, putting his body in harms way when he could have easily flown to Miami for sanctuary; in the end, giving his voice, his talent, his spiritual comfort to the voiceless of Haiti and protesting the US/France/Canada-orchestrated coup detat, the rich folks’ pillage and occupation of Haiti, indeed killed him. A great warrior has fallen. He’s left the rest to us.

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Ezili Dantò/Marguerite Laurent is President, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network. Click here to contact Ms. Laurent.

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