More Haitians Forcibly Returned From Guantanamo Bay Camp Refugee’s Lament: ‘I Don’t Want To Come Back To A Country Like This And Die In The Streets’

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter dropped off 289 glum-looking Haitians on the capital pier Saturday, the second group to be forcibly returned from a U.S. refugee camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Two young men had to be handcuffed and removed from the Boutwell after they caused an uproar on board, shouting “President (JeanBertrand) Aristide sent for us. Let him come and get us!”

One of the men was carried down the gangplank, moaning and weeping, and placed in a U.S. Army Humvee.

“I don’t want to come back to a country like this and die in the streets,” the returnee said, tears streaming down his cheeks.

The Humvee was driven to the end of the pier, where the man was to be released after “cooling off,” U.S. Coast Guard liaison officer Cmdr. David Breuninger said. The heavily armed U.S. soldiers overseeing the unloading wouldn’t allow journalists to talk to him.

“I ran away from a hail of bullets. They burned my house down. I have nothing here, that’s why I don’t want to come back,” shouted another man, 32-year-old Fritzman Delusma, from the cutter’s deck.

He was led between rows of heavily-armed Bangladeshi soldiers to the Haitian immigration processing center.

“I’d be better off killing myself,” he sobbed.

Delusma’s house was burned down in Raboteau, a slum section of the western coastal city of Gonaives, when Haitian soldiers massacred dozens of people during a dawn raid on April 22.

The Red Cross gave the returnees the equivalent of $16.50 in pocket money. They were then dropped off at a bus stop.

Fifty-four involuntary returnees arrived on Friday. Beginning Monday, about 400 will be returned each day until all 3,500 remaining in Guantanamo Bay are repatriated, U.S. Embassy spokesman Stan Schrager said.

Tens of thousands of Haitians fled economic hardship and political repression after the army ousted Aristide in September 1991. The number of Haitians at the Guantanamo Bay camp peaked last July at more than 20,000.

About 6,000 Haitians remained at Guantanamo last September, when a U.S.-led multinational force intervened to pave the way for Aristide’s return on Oct. 15.

Some 2,000 returned voluntarily in the weeks following Aristide’s return.

U.S. officials say the restoration of democracy and the renewal of international economic assistance has left refugees without valid grounds for requesting asylum.

“With the return of President Aristide, with the improving economic situation, with the unarguably better security situation, there is no reason for these people to stay in Guantanamo any longer,” Schrager said.

But human-rights groups denounce the forcible returns as a violation of international law, saying the refugees were not able to present their cases in fair hearings.

Schrager responded, “It is not true. Anyone who wants a hearing may contact INS (immigration) people at Guantanamo, and if they request a hearing they are given one.”