Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 1, 1994                   TAG: 9410030053
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONETA                                 LENGTH: Medium

VOICES FOR PEACE IN HAITI ARE HEARD IN MONETA

In Washington, advocates for Haitian democracy joined in an interfaith prayer service and demonstrated in front of the White House.

And in this out-of-the-way crossroads in Virginia, Bob and Adele DellaValle-Rauth held up a Haitian flag and made their statement for peace and stability in that island nation they have made their special concern.

"The people will bring democracy to Haiti," Bob DellaValle-Rauth said during a noontime vigil in front of the Moneta Fire Department.

But because the coup leaders and the "thugs" they command still will be in the country, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's life will be in danger from the moment he returns to Haiti, Adele DellaValle-Rauth predicted.

The couple has been in Haiti several times in recent years, serving as observers of the political situation and joining in Christian missions to express spiritual solidarity with the poor there. Adele DellaValle-Rauth is director of the Lynchburg Peace Education Center, and both of them are active in the Roman Catholic peace organization Pax Christi.

On their most recent visit in October 1993 - during the very week that Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras was supposed to have abdicated as the result of a previous peace agreement - the DellaValle-Rauths said they were under constant surveillance by government agents. Native advocates for the poor - including religious leaders - were beaten or killed if they were too outspoken, and bodies were left in the streets for hours or days to intimidate others, they said.

While the couple has long advocated some international intervention in Haiti, they are frustrated by the plan forged by former president Jimmy Carter, because it fails to remove Cedras and his followers from the country.

They hope the combined voices of American advocates of Haitian democracy and exiled Haitians living in the United States will compel President Clinton to invalidate the Sept. 18 agreement that allows the coup leaders to remain in Haiti.

The DellaValle-Rauths and some other peace activists had endorsed the imposition of a strict trade embargo against Haiti to pressure the coup leaders to leave. The poor receive practically no benefits of international trade - in wages, goods, medicine or food - the couple said, so their situation could not have been made more desperate by a trade embargo. Only the elite and the military leaders would have suffered, they said.

Though they originally counseled against military intervention on grounds that additional lives should not be put at risk, they now argue that because troops are there, they should be reinforced and continue to act as a "security force ... until the de facto government is kicked out."

The installation of American troops in Haiti will have another unintended benefit, they predict. "I think we'll have many more ambassadors for the Haitians in the United States when the soldiers return," Adele DellaValle-Rauth said.

Troops who have seen the oppression of the coup leadership and the intense poverty of the country will share their stories when they get home, the couple believes. They expect many to join the ranks of those already enlisted to work for democratic reform and economic aid for a country that is ranked as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

"They will come back converted," Bob DellaValle-Rauth said.

For themselves, the couple say they would love to be in Haiti on the day Aristide returns.

Realistically, Bob DellaValle-Rauth expects some looting. "People are starving. They need to fill their stomachs."

But he and his wife see the overriding emotion as one of great joy.

"It's like taking the cork off a champagne bottle," Adele DellaValle-Rauth said. "They are ready to celebrate."