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Angry Haitians blame voodoo for ferry sinking

divers Latest developments: September 11, 1997
Web posted at: 11:16 p.m. EDT (0316 GMT)

MONTROUIS, Haiti (CNN) -- Angry relatives of those who drowned in a Haitian ferry disaster Monday burned a ferry Thursday belonging to a competing line, saying the rival owner used voodoo to cause the catastrophe.

The residents of the island of La Gonave, where Thursday's incident took place, also tried to lynch the wife of the rival ferry's owner as she tried to charter a plane to leave the island.

"You people have good magic, that's why our people are dead," they shouted as they surrounded 42-year-old Nereus Jean-Joseph. The woman was taken to a police station, where officials urged the mob on the poor and often lawless island to "let justice take its course."

Simon La Pointe, the mayor of La Gonave's main town, Anse-a-Galets, said the rival ferry's owner, Tio Djo, had used voodoo to ask spirits to sink the ferry La Fierte Gonavienne (Pride of Gonave).

U.S. divers, ship arrive

The Pride of Gonave capsized and sank before dawn Monday 50 yards from shore when passengers eager to disembark crowded to one side of the vessel. Officials still do not know how many people were aboard, but an estimated 200 people drowned in the incident.

A team of 22 U.S. Navy divers and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Confidence arrived Thursday and surveyed the site where the ferry lies in approximately 110 feet of water.

So far only 86 bodies have been recovered, and an estimated 100 to 150 remain trapped on the lower decks. Somewhere between 30 and 60 passengers survived the sinking.

The divers are expected to cut a hole in the ferry's hull to remove the bodies.

Mayor: 'Can't exclude' voodoo

shore

"The owner of the Calypso line (Djo) had given three days for the boat to sink, and everyone knew that," La Pointe said Thursday. "Voodoo is something you just can't exclude in the Haitian system."

La Pointe said he saw a crowd on La Gonave burn Djo's ferry, the Tio Djo Express, Thursday to avenge what they believed was a voodoo curse. The Associated Press reported that Djo, fearing for his life, had already fled to Miami.

Ludes Derival, father of the owner of Pride of Gonave, agreed that magic was the cause of the sinking.

"How could a boat get all this way across, arrive and then sink?" he asked. "It's magic."

A number of ferries, most of them small and rickety wooden boats, ply the waters between Haiti and outlying islands. The steel-hulled, three-level Gonavienne had air conditioning and televisions, and Derival said "people were jealous because (his son's) boat was doing so well."

Despite its comforts, survivors say, there were no life preservers aboard the ferry and the doors to the lower decks were locked, trapping many inside.

Haitians angry at government

Earlier efforts to recover the bodies by U.N. personnel were hampered by a lack of equipment and properly trained divers. The ferry is said to be upside down and resting precariously on a ledge.

The Navy divers include some who were involved in the recovery efforts after the TWA Flight 800 plane crash last year off Long Island, New York.

There was no word whether the Haitian government planned an inquiry into the accident or what steps it might take to prevent something similar from happening again. In fact, there was no word from the government for the second day in a row.

The delay in recovering the bodies has been agonizing for many residents, and they have been quick to notice their government's low profile.

Two bodies drifted to the surface Thursday and fishermen had to row out to retrieve them. Women in the crowd on shore wailed when the body of Holland Origene, 31, a medical student at Port-au-Prince University, was spotted 200 yards offshore and brought in.

"There are too many criminals in this country," said 23-year-old Benita Campbell, Origene's cousin, "and that includes the government."

Haiti was in the second day of a three-day mourning period for victims of the sinking, the worst Haitian maritime disaster since the 1993 capsizing of the Neptune, which may have killed more than 1,000 people.

Flags flew at half-staff at government buildings, and nightclubs were asked to close.

Correspondent Susan Candiotti, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 
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