Local Missionary Kidnapped

Analysis:

On December 2nd, 3rd and 4th the Grand Rapids Press ran three stories about a local man kidnapped in Haiti. These stories were told primarily through the perspective of the Kidnapped man’s family and co-workers. Several quotes were provided in which the family members talk about what kind of work the kidnapped man was doing. At one point in the article the daughter and mother are quoted as saying that they hope the kidnapping “will serve as an awareness for the situation in Haiti and more people will want to help out down there.” Unfortunately, there is little contextual information provided in the two Grand Rapids press articles about the situation in Haiti. The only information given is that Haiti is dangerous and “gang-infested”, that “There have been more abductions since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February 2004 and that in 5 weeks elections will be held to “restore democracy.”

Except for these three articles about the kidnapped missionary, events in Haiti seldom receive much coverage in the local media. One important topic relating to Haiti that was substantially under reported in both the local and national press was the 2004 coup against then-president Jean Paul Aristide and the US government’s role in that event. Independent news sources reported at the time of the 2004 coup that the US government had been covertly supplying the rebel forces and that they failed to take any action to stop the rebels until Aristide was out of power. Furthermore, journalists such as Amy Goodman reported that US agents actually kidnapped Aristide and flew him out of the country against his own will. So it is important to note that the US government is complicit in creating the current unrest caused by the departure of President Aristide. According to the media watchdog group “Project Censored”, U.S. involvement in the destabilization of Haiti was one of the top twenty five unreported stories of 2004. It should also be noted that the situation in Haiti, that is the extreme economic deprivation, is not solely a result of poor planning or bad luck on the part of the Haitians. Over the last two hundred years Haiti has been the victim of external manipulation by various governments and more recently international organizations like the International Monetary fund and World Bank. And yet these facts, which would help the reader have a better understanding of why Haiti is in the situation it is in, are very seldom reported on in the mainstream media.

Story:

Family buoyed by missionary’s release
Friday, December 02, 2005
By Theresa D. Mcclellan
The Grand Rapids Press
ZEELAND — Missionary Phillip Snyder, 48, of Zeeland, was released by kidnappers in Haiti shortly after 3:30 p.m. today, according to family members.

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra confirmed the FBI told him Snyder has been released.

Snyder, whose family has been doing missionary work in Haiti for more than 30 years, was abducted earlier in the week. He had been shot in the arm during the abduction.

The FBI had responded and was part of the negotiations, as was Snyder’s son, Chad, 29, a missionary who relocated his family to Haiti three weeks ago.
The Zeeland missionary had been held in a gang-infested portion of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was kidnapped by unknown assailants who demanded $300,000 in cash, his family said.

The kidnappers also seized a 7-year-old Haitian boy named Chelton, who later was released. The boy’s father escaped the kidnappers.

Snyder, 48, is leader of GLOW Ministries, a Zeeland-based mission he created with his mother, Bettie, who has been involved in Haiti for more than 30 years. He visits Haiti every couple months, his family said.

Snyder’s wife said she received a call from him about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the family’s home. He told her he had been kidnapped and shot, she said, adding the Red Cross was allowed to examine him.

“The Lord has been miraculously buoying me up,” said Amber Snyder. “I am standing back amazed at the peace my kids and I have. We know that Phil is safe and will stay safe. There is no doubt in our minds, and I am amazed I have not broken down today.”

Phil Snyder was en route to the American Consulate with the child and the boy’s father to finalize a travel visa when they were abducted on a road north of the capital. The youngster has an eye bulging from its socket, and Snyder arranged for surgery at Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus in Grand Rapids.

Also Thursday, gunmen hijacked a school bus carrying 14 children Port-au-Prince. The separate kidnappings came five weeks before national elections are to be held to restore democracy and stability in this strife-torn, impoverished nation. But police said they did not appear to be politically related.

Police Commissioner Francois Henry Doussous spoke with Snyder’s kidnappers and Snyder by phone. Doussous said police believed the kidnappers brought Snyder to the Port-au-Prince slum of Cite Soleil, a base for armed gangs blamed for much of the violence in the capital.

“This is purely criminal activity; the gangs need money,” he said.
Snyder grew up in Haiti with his parents.

“He is a man who loves the people of Haiti,” said Ray Renner, of Anderson, Ind., vice president of GLOW’s board. Renner is a longtime friend of Snyder’s mother, who remains in Haiti and has e-mailed Renner.

Amber Snyder, 38, said this was the first time her husband was to bring someone out of Haiti for medical purposes. She is a Zeeland native and is being supported by friends and family, including her parents, Bob and Cathy Tift.

The Snyder’s daughter, Kimberly, 19, said people came to her family’s Zeeland home Thursday to pray and bring food.

Kimberly Snyder believes her father was taken because he is American.

On Nov. 22, the U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning to Americans regarding Haiti. The alert warned of potential looting, roadblocks set up by armed gangs, carjackings and assaults in what is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
“Kidnapping for ransom remains a particular threat with over 25 American citizens, including children, kidnapped over the past year,” the travel warning stated.

On Nov. 2, Haitian police rescued three young children of Oklahoma missionaries kidnapped by gangs dressed as police.

Kidnap victim kept faith
Saturday, December 03, 2005
By Shandra Martinez
The Grand Rapids Press

ZEELAND — Before he left this week on his trip to Haiti, Phillip Snyder told a staffer at his family’s ministry he would see her when he got back — unless he was kidnapped.
Snyder, 48, who was released by armed attackers Friday after being held for two days, knew kidnapping for ransom was an everyday occurrence in the impoverished nation where he has worked for decades.

And if he was taken, Snyder said, it would be part of God’s plan.

“He always said God would use him to witness to the kidnappers,” said Teresa Prange, who runs the downtown Zeeland office of GLOW International Ministry.

The nonprofit organization’s focus is on community development, working with Haitian pastors and community leaders to provide education and meals for more than 2,000 children there.

The father of nine was shot in the shoulder and kidnapped Thursday by assailants demanding $300,000 from his family. He was freed nearly 36 hours later after his oldest son, Chad, and a team of a Haitian and U.S. officials negotiated his release.

While the kidnappers did receive money, it was a small amount, said his 72-year-old mother, Bettie Snyder, who has been a missionary in Haiti for more than three decades.
Bettie Snyder, reached on her cell phone there Friday, credited her grandson with playing a key role in his father’s quick release. She said she believes the kidnappers understood Snyder’s commitment to helping Haitians.

“I think it’s because of his work here,” she said of her son, who first went to Haiti 30 years ago to join his late father in mission work.

It was not disclosed who paid the ransom, but it did not come from GLOW, she said.
“There is no way we could have paid that money when we are feeding children with every dollar we have,” she said.

With the kidnapping behind them, the family has no plan to abandon their life’s work.
“We couldn’t leave our children. We love Haiti and these children. We have raised so many,” Bettie Snyder said.

This isn’t Phillip Snyder’s first brush with danger in Haiti. He left the country in 1991 after living there for 12 years because of threats to his life.

But he couldn’t forget the Haitians. In 1998, he, his wife, Amber, and his mother founded GLOW. Bettie Snyder lives most of the year in Haiti, while her son makes several trips there a year.

Local residents who have accompanied him are amazed at how revered Snyder is by Haitians.

“You go through Haiti on a truck and everybody yells ‘Phillip,'” said Prange, who, after her mission trip, joined the GLOW staff.

Bettie Snyder believes her son was kidnapped because he was driving down the wrong road at the wrong time of day.

“His problem is he left too early. In the morning, (kidnappers) lay in wait,” she said.
Amber Snyder, 38, said she never feared for her husband’s safety after he called her Thursday to tell her he had been shot and kidnapped.

“I explained that I had such a supernatural sense of peace, and there was no doubt in my mind he would be OK,” she said. “He said it was a good thing because he didn’t. He said ‘I thought I was going to be killed.'”
Although his capture was violent, he wasn’t abused physically during his ordeal, he told his wife.

He was held hostage with a 7-year-old Haitian boy he was preparing to bring back to West Michigan for eye surgery. With the exception of the first two hours, the two were together the entire time, Snyder told his wife.

They were driving to the U.S. Consulate in Port-au-Prince to complete paperwork for a medical travel visa when they were ambushed by the captors who riddled the recently purchased truck with bullets.

Since April, 28 Americans have been kidnapped in Haiti, according to U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland.

“It is a business in Haiti to kidnap people and hold them for ransom,” said Hoekstra, who visited the country five weeks ago.

Snyder couldn’t believe his kidnapping made national headlines.

“Everybody has been praying for you … literally from around the world. I even heard people in Africa were praying for you,” Amber Snyder told her husband Friday as she stood in the living room of their home.

Snyder told his wife he will need further medical treatment on his wounded shoulder. He plans to return home next week, along with the Haitian boy in need of surgery.
Haiti’s children always will be a priority for the Snyders.

“They are family to us. You don’t turn your back on your family,” Amber Snyder said.

Missionary’s passion for Haitians shared
Sunday, December 04, 2005
By Shandra Martinez
The Grand Rapids Press

ZEELAND — Phillip Snyder, the missionary who was shot, abducted and released in Haiti, is delaying his medical treatment so he can bring a boy to West Michigan for eye surgery.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Heather Medema, of Grand Rapids, a physician’s assistant who has led medical missions to Haiti as part of Snyder’s GLOW Ministries International, which stands for God’s Love for Orphans and Widows.

Snyder, of Zeeland, needs to have shrapnel removed from his shoulder. His abductors shot him Thursday when they ambushed his truck as he was traveling to the Haitian capital to secure a travel visa for the boy, 6. Snyder was released Friday.

Those who have accompanied Snyder on mission trips say they understand his passion for helping Haitians, especially children. It comes from seeing suffering up close.

Rick Kasten, of Holland, visited a village where Haitians were so sick, they could barely take care of themselves. The children’s severe malnourishment was evident by their orange hair and bloated stomachs.

“You go to a place like that and you are confronted about whether you are going to make a difference or not,” said Kasten, who provided money to open a school and support a program that feeds more than 200 children.

Medema said she organized mobile medical clinics during her mission trips. The painful part, she said, was being able to treat only a portion of the hundreds who waited hours seeking help.

Her goal is to start health clinics at GLOW-supported schools and expand the service to acute and chronic medical needs.

“We need to feed the kids first, get clean water, and then help train Haitians in health care so, if there is political unrest and Americans can’t come, their own people can take care of them,” Medema said.

There have been more abductions since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February 2004. Authorities believe the kidnappers are members of gangs based in Cite Soleil, a sprawling seaside slum.

“The gangs need money,” Commissioner Francois Henri Doussous, head of Haiti’s anti-kidnapping unit, told The Associated Press.

Snyder’s captors were paid a small ransom, relatives said.

Despite the headlines, Medema said she hopes to take another mission trip to Haiti in the spring.

“It waxes and wanes as far as incidents,” she said. “The only thing this has done is open people’s eyes to what has been going for years.”