Exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, speaking to an American Jewish group here, compared the plight of Haitian refugees seeking haven in the United States today to that of European Jews seeking refuge during the 1930s.
He specifically recalled how in May 1939, some 900 Jews aboard the S.S. St. Louis tried desperately to escape the Holocaust, only to be turned away at every potential port of safety.
Aristide said that refugees who are returned to Haiti have faced violence and some have even been executed, adding to the over 5,000 people killed since the September 1991 coup in which he was ousted.
“The refugee crises will not end until democracy is restored to Haiti,” Aristide said last week at the first annual Conscience of the Community Awards reception, sponsored by the Washington chapter of the American Jewish Congress.
“We must be just with our refugees. Given the escalating levels of violence and oppression, it would be immoral to ask people whose very lives are at risk to stay in Haiti,” he said at the June 23 ceremony.
Although Aristide welcomed the increased pressures and embargo put on Haiti’s military government by the United Nations and United States, he stressed the need for organized protests.
During World War II, according to Aristide, protests by Jewish groups helped push the world community to take action. “This same solidarity is needed for Haiti,” he said. “We are sure this will hasten the day when true democracy can be restored.”
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