Roots Without End Society Houngan Louvel Delon, Bon
Houngan Tounen Sa Li Vle Daginen; and Roots Without End
Society Mambo Lisa Gruber, Bon Mambo Trois Bagues
Trois Fois Force Bien Frais Daginen; were arrested on the
morning of July 24, 2007, at the ****t-au-Prince international
air****t. Both are American citizens by birth, and Houngan
Louvel Delon has some Haitian heritage on his father's side.
Both were arrested by an officer of the air****t security
service, who took exception to their possession of two
sacred skulls. Although they had violated no Haitian law,
the two were placed in custody by the air****t security
officer, who had no authority to do so in the first place
since there is no law against possession of skulls.
Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo Lisa Gruber received
those sacred ancestral skulls from Haitian Houngan Luckner
St. Louis of Jacmel. He gave them two skulls, those of a
long-dead Houngan and Mambo of his own biological family
line, so that the spirits within them could go to the USA and
enable Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo Lisa Gruber
to perform certain Vodou services.
There is no law whatsoever in Haiti forbidding the
owner****p of skulls - if there were, virtually every Houngan,
Mambo, and bokor in Haiti, not to mention a few others,
would be in prison! These sacred objects are served with
their libations and their food, their candles and their objects,
being served and venerated as our tradition requires.
Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo Lisa Gruber have not
violated any law regarding the trans****ting of bones, either.
There are laws in Haiti regulating the trans****t of cadavers,
and laws against desecration of graves, neither of which
pertain to the case of Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo
Lisa Gruber, who were in possession of dry, clean, ancient
bones, and who have not desecrated any grave whatsoever.
On July 25, Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo Lisa Gruber
were charged with "trafficking in human body parts" and
imprisoned indefinitely until trial, despite the fact that they had
not bought the skulls for money and did not plan to sell them!
The sham trial lasted no more than a few minutes, and
was conducted by a militantly Protestant "Commissaire"
who served as prosecuting attorney, judge, and jury all in
one. The two Americans speak no Creole, and had no
interpreter or lawyer present.
Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo Lisa Gruber were then
trans****ted to the Penetencier National and the Petionville
women's prison, respectively. Re****ts indicate that
Houngan Louvel was beaten other prisoners and robbed
of his money, a common practice with newly
incarcerated individuals. In the meanwhile Mambo Lisa,
shocked by events, became ill and had to be trans****ted
immediately to the ****t-au-Pince General Hospital, itself
a facility of very dubious quality.
It is an outrage against all principles of law, as well as
against the basic principles of human rights, that these two
individuals should be treated in such a degrading way.
Mambo Lisa Gruber is an educator in the USA, Houngan
Louvel Delon is a writer, and the couple own and manage a
bookstore. These are not murderers who, having killed,
attempt to ****p a body out of the country! Neither were they
selling kidneys and corneas - in fact, they didn't buy the
skulls at all, but instead received them from a Haitian
Houngan in the course of a Haitian Vodou ceremony.
It is staggering to we the leaders and members of the
Roots Without End Society that major crimes such as
kidnapping, murder and armed robbery committed with
regularity in the streets of ****t-au-Prince go unpunished,
while the august justice system of Haiti wastes its time
with a Houngan and a Mambo carrying two long-dead
ancestral skulls, to which we have every right and with
which we practice our religion!
The Roots Without End Society, led by Mambo Racine Sans
Bout, appeals to the Haitian Ministry of Culture and to President
Rene Preval, to intervene and hold up the name and the
worth of the Vodou religion! We are not criminals or thieves,
we are clergy of a religion more ancient than Christianity.
Our Houngans and Mambos, our rites, our sacred objects,
must be respected.
The Roots Without End Society demands the immediate and
unconditional liberation of Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo
Lisa Gruber. We demand that our tradition and our sacred
objects be accorded the same respect as those of any
Catholic priest or Protestant pastor in Haiti. We demand
that the ancestral skulls be immediately returned to their
descendant, Houngan Luckner St. Louis. We denounce
the scapegoating of our two members, considering
that skulls have been going and coming back and forth to
Haiti in the hands of Houngans and Mambos for decades if
not centuries, and never has their been any objection from
the Haitian authorities or American Customs, through
which several Roots Without End Society Houngans
and Mambos have passed from year to year, accompanied
by ancestral skulls. Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo
Lisa Gruber are victims of religious persecution, which
is outlawed by the Hatian Constitution and the United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to
which Haiti is signatory.
At this time the Roots Without End Society, aided by
Haitian attorney Louifort Laguerre of Jacmel,
and American attorney Timothy O'Leary of Easthampton,
Massachusetts, are now establi****ng a fund for the legal
defense of Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo Lisa Gruber,
and for their maintainence and sup****t while they remain
cruelly and arbitrarily imprisoned in two of the worst prisons
on earth, for no crime other than practicing the Vodou
religion in the same manner as the Houngans and
Mambos of Haiti have always done.
Liberation for Houngan Louvel Delon and Mambo Lisa
Gruber! Respect for Vodou and Vodouisants worldwide!
Mambo Racine Sans Bout
The VODOU Page - http://members.aol.com/racine125/index.html
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