Boat carrying Haitians capsizes; 20 dead

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Houston Chronicle/Associated Press

May 4, 2007, 10:14AM
Boat carrying Haitians capsizes; 20 dead
By VIVIAN TYSON Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press


SOUTH DOCK, Turks and Caicos Islands — A boat loaded with Haitians capsized early Friday, and about 20 bodies have been found, some partially eaten by sharks. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was searching for 58 other passengers.

The police recovered 63 people from the vessel after it capsized about a half-mile south of Providenciales Island in the Atlantic Ocean. The island belongs to the Turks and Caicos, a British territory.

Survivors told police there had been about 150 people aboard the boat, the Coast Guard said. The police boat, guided by the Coast Guard helicopter, also rescued 10 people who were found clinging to the hull of the capsized vessel.

The Coast Guard said about 20 bodies had been seen.

An Associated Press reporter saw about a dozen bodies that had been pulled from the water and brought to South Dock, on Providenciales, about 120 miles north of Haiti. Some corpses had limbs chewed off.




Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4775567.html

---

Sailboat packed with Haitians capsizes, 58 missing
04 May 2007 14:36:19 GMT

MIAMI, May 4 (Reuters) - A sailboat packed with up to 150 Haitian migrants capsized while it was being towed by a police vessel from the Turks and Caicos on Friday, and the U.S. Coast Guard said 20 people had died while another 58 were missing.

The Coast Guard said 63 people had been pulled from the water after the 25- to 30-foot (7.6- to 9.1-metre) Haitian vessel flipped over around half a mile (1 km) south of Providenciales Island in the Turks and Caicos, a British overseas territory, and another 10 were found later clinging to the overturned hull.

But survivors indicated to police that the sailboat had been carrying around 150 people.

Twenty bodies were located after a 1-1/2 hour search that was joined by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter, a U.S. C-130 aircraft and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter based in the Bahamas.

So far in 2007, the U.S. Coast Guard has rescued or intercepted 909 Haitians fleeing their impoverished and chaotic homeland on the island of Hispaniola for what they think will be a better life abroad, mainly in the United States.

More:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04264666.htm

[seemslikeadream]

1. impoverished and chaotic homeland

BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE



EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORISTS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATH
AND REMEMBER...
HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED...
BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE
IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE


http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. The International Republican Institute and Congressional right-wingers will never give them a moment

of peace until they accept their fate and return to the slave status from which they attempted to escape during their revolt against the French slave masters so very long ago.

Unlike Cubans, who are offered a full array of benefits the moment they step onto U.S. soil, including instant safe legal status, US taxpayer-supported Section 8 Housing, food stamps, welfare, social security, medical treatment, work visa, even financial assistance for education, Haitians are returned to their island A.S.A.P..

During their _Bush-instigated coup a few years ago, _Bush, sitting safely behind his desk ordered American ships to surround the island and turn back all the people who were desperately attempting to flee from the bloodbath going on at the hands of the right-wing former Duvalier death squads, reactivated and outfitted next door in the Dominican Republic. They were all fed right back into the meat grinder to teach them a lesson.

You may also remember that when they attempted to vote for the people's choice, Rene Preval in the last Presidential election, they almost lost it until someone discovered piles and piles of burning completed ballots smouldering in the city dump. Even got many photos to prove it.

If this discovery had NOT been made, Haiti would have had to accept yet another pro-sweatshop, right-wing, U.S.-supported President.

[seemslikeadream]

4. Until she spoke

Until she spoke, no Christian nation had abolished Negro slavery.

Until she spoke, no Christian nation had given to the world an organized effort to abolish slavery.

Until she spoke, the slave ship, followed by hungry sharks, greedy to devour the dead and dying slaves flung overboard to feed them, ploughed in peace the South Atlantic, painting the sea with the Negro's blood.

Until she spoke, the slave trade was sanctioned by all the Christian nations of the world, and our land of liberty and light included. Men made fortunes by this infernal traffic, and were esteemed as good Christians, and the standing types and representations of the Savior of the World.

Until Haiti spoke, the church was silent, and the pulpit was dumb. Slave-traders lived and slave-traders died. Funeral sermons were preached over them, and of them it was said that they died in the triumphs of the Christian faith and went to heaven among the just.

This segment was extracted from Lecture on Haiti and edited in its present form by Guy S. Antoine ( http://windowsonhaiti.com ) in July 1998. The speech was delivered at the World's Fair, in Jackson Park, Chicago by the Hon. Frederick Douglass, ex-Minister to Haiti on January 2, 1893 and can be read online at:

http://haitiforever.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=678

[Judi Lynn]

5. Never have seen this. Proud to file it to share with others. Hope Douglass' hope

untimately be realized. Haiti MUST win all over again, its sovereignty. That's the ONLY way justice could ever prevail.



Frederick Douglass

[Rude Horner]

2. So sad

My wife and I took a cruise this past March, for our 20th anniversary, and one of our stops was Labadi, Haiti. Beautiful. But it was really upsetting to think of the poverty and chaos that the people there live in. Very very sad.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Haitians Die When Boat Overturns

Haitians Die When Boat Overturns

Friday May 4, 2007 9:46 PM


By VIVIAN TYSON and ANDREW O. SELSKY

Associated Press Writers

SOUTH DOCK, Turks and Caicos Islands (AP) - Every year, Haitians by the hundreds set off in rickety boats hoping to escape poverty by sneaking into the United States. The perils became gruesomely apparent Friday when a crowded boat capsized, flinging migrants into shark-infested waters.

Hours after the sailing vessel overturned in moonlit waters a half-mile from shore, rescuers had recovered more than a dozen bodies - some with savage bite wounds - and were searching for about 60 missing people.

A Turks and Caicos police boat picked up 63 survivors, and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter spotted 10 more clinging to the overturned vessel and guided in another boat to get them, said Petty Officer Third Class Barry Bena. The Coast Guard sent a cutter and a C-130 plane to join the search.

``We have 17 confirmed dead,'' a harried Turks and Caicos official told The Associated Press as bodies were being delivered to South Dock, the main commercial port of this British territory. ``Five or six small boats of ours are out searching. The survivors are being fed.''

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6608837,00.html

[psychopomp]

7. Strange the Reuters piece says the accident happened while being towed by a police boat

That does not seem to make much sense as the survivors had to tell authorities how many were on the boat to begin with. At any rate, I hope they have success in finding the rest of the passengers alive.