Actualités

To all incarcerated compatriots (Haitians)

Prisonniers politiques: Biron Odige - Timothée Rony

To all incarcerated compatriots

10 November 2014

Let me first begin by saluting all of you for your sincere devotion and sacrifice to our beloved country (Haiti). My fellow man and woman, I am very sadden by recent event of our current government to place men like Ronny Timothee, Biron Odige and others in confinement for having expressed their political views and their right to protest against the current government. I do not have much to offer you my compatriot except a few kind words and my sincere apology as a Haitian for your suffering or any other inconvenient that you may be receiving during your incarceration period.

It is sad for me to accept these types of treatments or behavior in year 2014.

I currently view these actions on the part of Michel Martelly's government whom that I once supported as an insult to the memory of great man like M. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Toussaint Louverture, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and many others who have fought for freedom of expression, and the right to manifest against a government that one may not find satisfactory to the needs of the people that they have once promised to serve. Like these respectful personalities that I have mentioned, some of them have also suffered injustice from their government during they life time in one ways or another as the struggle to find civil right that other developing countries have come to know today. And my fellow man, let me just say that if destiny call upon your courage and strength to suffer the same as those who came before you; then as a citizen of this world I salute you with the utmost respect as I have saluted and honor many others who have fought in the name of social justice and freedom.

However, I am still hurt by these types of actions on the part of a Haitian government that has taken office post 1987. As the struggle continues, I want to wish you all well and let us keep our eyes on the prize of someday reaching the pennants of what I will call Haitian equitability where all men and women will have the same exercisable right within our beloved country. And it is with that sentiment that I would like to remind you that freedom have always won on the spirit of those who exercise great strength and moral characters, and once again let the spirit of the creator carry you all, and strengthen your courage on this voyage as it is a mission to not only fight for freedom but to leave this world a better place than we find it.

Sincerely yours,

Patrick Grandoit
(Native of Haiti)