Diplomat: Shooting in Haiti Has Lesson; Dialogue Needed, He Tells People 

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The longtime head of an international human rights mission departed from Haiti on Tuesday for the last time with a warning of dire consequences if Haitians don't learn any lessons from the assassination a day earlier of Jean Dominique, the country's leading radio journalist-commentator. "I hope it brings people to their senses," said Colin Granderson, a Trinidadian diplomat who headed an international human rights monitoring mission to Haiti from its inception in 1992 until the end of its mandate March 15. "It's time for everybody to sit down in a wide political dialogue," Granderson said in a parting comment. "If not, there will be a slow descent into violence and even worse." Granderson's comments came as friends and foes alike united to mourn Dominique's death at the hands of unknown gunmen early Monday and the implications it held for the future of free speech and democracy in Haiti. Prime Minister Jacques Alexis paid tribute to Dominique as a fighter for democracy, not just for his family and co-workers but for all of Haiti.

DISPLAY OF UNITY

The local media, not all of whom were admirers of Dominique, showed a rare display of unity in condemning the assassination and expressing condolences to his family and concern about his death and the implications for free speech. The Roman Catholic and Protestant churches came together in a joint appeal for legislative elections in time to seat a new Parliament on June 12, and questioned why democracy had to be built on blood. Police said they were working around the clock on the assassination and would not stop until they had identified the killers and the people behind them. Dominique, 69, was gunned down as he arrived at Radio Haiti Inter, the station he operated with his family, and where his acerbic and sometimes personal attacks targeted anyone perceived to be an enemy of democracy as he saw it.

INFLAMMATORY

His sometimes inflammatory commentary made enemies on the left and the right, and speculation on his assassins ranged across the spectrum, but he had multitudes of admirers as well. An informal advisor to President Rene Preval and a friend of Preval and former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Dominique staunchly defended the government in his radio commentaries. "He was perceived as a spokesman for the government," Yvon Neptune, a spokesman and Senate candidate for Aristide's Lavalas Family Party, said in an interview. "The reason he was perceived that way was because he always worked to show what the government was doing." Neptune also expressed the concern of many in saying that Dominique's death "sends a very threatening message to the people who want elections and who want justice for the victims of the coup" against Aristide in September 1991, as well as being a "threat to the freedom of speech."