27103: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti priest jailed by government has leukemia (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

     MIAMI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - An outspoken Haitian priest who many believe
would be a top contender for the country's presidency if he had not been
jailed is suffering from leukemia and should be released, a U.S. doctor
said on Thursday.
     Paul Farmer, a Harvard Medical School doctor renowned in Haiti for
leading the fight against AIDS, said he had taken a blood sample from the
imprisoned priest, Father Gerard Jean-Juste, and found he had chronic
lymphocytic leukemia.
     The disease can be managed for a long time if conditions are right and
chemotherapy is available, Farmer told Reuters in an e-mail, "but it would
be difficult in prison."
     Farmer said tuberculosis was epidemic in most Haitian prisons and
people suffering from the priests's form of leukemia are susceptible to
skin, lung, kidney and other types of infections. Farmer visited Jean-Juste
over Christmas.
     Jean-Juste, who had been regarded by many as the heir to former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was ousted in an armed rebellion in
February 2004, has been in prison since July 21, accused of playing a role
in the killing of journalist Jacques Roche.
     Jean-Juste has denied the charge and said he was in Miami at the time.
     Officials of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, which has broad support
among the poor, say the charges were manufactured to prevent the popular
priest from standing in presidential elections, originally scheduled for
November but repeatedly delayed since.
     The ballot is now likely in February but some political parties are
calling for a longer delay while Haiti struggles with bureaucratic chaos, a
rash of kidnappings and continued political violence despite the presence
of 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers and international police.
     The United Nations, a U.S. ambassador to Haiti and human rights groups
have called on the interim government, appointed after Aristide fled into
exile, to release Lavalas officials who have been jailed without formal
charges.