Plea for Kidnapping Victim

I received the following posting from the daughter of a kidnapping victim in Haiti. Please send collected Light.


Dear Sirs and Madams,

My name is Rose Marcello. I am the daugther of Joseph François Robert MARCELLO, the National Coordinator of Public Procurement in Haiti since 2004, a member of your network (IGPN).

My father was kidnapped on January 12th, 2008 around 8 PM in Port-au-Prince, HAITI. Since then we have had no news of him. We were never able to talk to him or had any proof he was indeed alive. For the three first days we have had regular contacts with the kidnappers but twice a ransom delivery was thwarted. Since Thursday 15th as negotiations were taken over by the police, they never called back. We had made it really clear that we were ready to pay the requested sum. The police and the Haitian Government have had a really careless attitude since the beginning of this.

For the past few days, we have come to believe that this kidnapping was related to his office tenure. We learned that he had been receiving threats for quite sometimes and several high members of Government had been alerted and the calling phone numbers given to them. Nothing had been done. For now, the President, Prime Minister, Ministers and other high-ranking officials are aware of the situation. Nothing is being done. We even feel that the police investigation is deliberately being slowed down. Other members of his office have been requested at the police station to help with the investigation. None of them showed up.

I think you are all aware of the dangers and challenges that his position trigger due to high corruption in Haiti. Several times, it has been made public through the media that several senators, congressmen and other member of government considered that my father was an "annoying" element of the system; one who would not let business be done the good old-fashion way.

I am appealing to you today to please reach out to you partners in Haiti (OAS, IADB, Monetary Fund, European Union, UN) but also to your contacts within the Haitian Government to have my father freed. He suffers from heart failure and high blood pressure. He hasn't had his medications for 2 weeks now. My family and I are very concerned for his health.

Please let them know that we are ready to do any concessions to have him returned to us alive. We have knocked on every door we can. We followed the police indications. We have done everything we were told to and are more than ready to cooperate. Please if you have contacts in Haiti, do something for us.

Otherwise, make it known within your network and the international institutions so as to put pressure on the Haitian Gvt. If you happen to have contacts that we could reach out to, please help us.

I thank you in advance,

Rose Marcello