14647: Saint-Vil points to shameful misuse of Izmery's legacy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Jean Saint-Vil <jafrikayiti@hotmail.com>

While reading through Metropole and HaitiPressNetwork today, I noticed a
couple of articles criticizing some declarations government officials made
recently concerning a set of immigrants they believe to be involved in
illegal activities in Haiti.

While, I agree that some of the comments in question were ill-framed - if
utteredd as reported in Haiti's right wing press, the truly strange thing is
that some people seem to be attempting to distort the truth by making
reference to Antoine Izmery to show how a particular immigrant community may
have also stood for "democracy" in Haiti.

Yet, it is a well known fact that the highly respected Haitian of
Palestinian decent (Izmery) was literaly HATED by most of Haiti’s small but
enriched foreign immigrant community. Some of these folks, now leading the
Initiative Societé Civile, were formerly known as the MRE (Morally Repugnant
Elite) and they hated Izmery, precisely because he always stood up against
their racially-based, CIA-linked, criminal activities – not the least of
which was: financing the bloody 1991 coup d’état.

In fact, in a brief presentation of Katharine Kean’s film featuring the life
and assassination of Antoine Izmery, one reads: “Rezistans suggests that
Izmery, like thousands of other Haitians, is the victim of a brutal
oligarchy that conducts its reign of terror with the collusion of operatives
from the U.S. government.”

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1060

Clearly, those who have been to Haiti know for a FACT that African-Haitians
are not xenophobic. We have never been and never shall be. Our popular
culture, our social environment are very counter-xenophobic. Antoine Izmery
understood and appreciated this fact. That’s why his love and respect for
the Haitian people was always met in kind. No sound Haitian would tell you
Izmery was not Haitian. Yet, they will tell you fair and square that many of
the fools who are trying to overthrow the current government are
anti-Haitian foreigners. Why? Because they behave so!

If today some of these foreign nationals in Haiti feel “sispèk tankou chen
ki pete nan legliz”, it is because of what they know themselves to be
involved in – individually and as gang members, not because Haitians have
shown  Xenophobia towards them in any shape or form. Psychologists call this
kind of occurrence “projection”.  South African and Zimbabwean Boers lived
and expressed a similar kind of delusional behaviour post the Rodhesia and
Apartheid eras. These culprits see in their victims’ eyes the brutes that
they themselves have been for too long. Apparently, Michael Moore also
describes a similar phenomenon in his much acclaimed “Bowling for
Columbine”.   "yo sispèk" would certainly be an appropriate theme for this
year’s carnival!

Concerning the outrageous murder of Antoine Izmery, much gratitude and
respect are due to the brave souls (Haitian and foreign, black, white and
other) who fought HARD and finally obtained some “justice”,  in that file.

Indeed we were elated to learn from
http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/Cadavre.htm that  “On March 25, 2002 (nearly
10 years after the Izmery murders) the U.S. immigration authorities finally
deported to Haiti the former Haitian Army captain, Jackson Joanis, who faces
charges related to his role in the 1993 murder of Antoine Izmery…”

“In the early 1990s, Jackson Joanis was the head of the notorious Anti-Gang
police department …In its 1998-99 annual report, the Geopolitical Drug Watch
organisation, claimed that Joanis played a key role in protecting those who
set up drug-running operations in Haiti during the 1991-94 coup years. The
report says that Fernando Burgos Martinez, a major Colombian drug baron
linked to the Cali cartel, ran his operations in conjunction with Haitian
businessmen from the capital's largest casino, El Rancho.”

Among the FEW true friends of Haiti, to whom we shall always be indebted, we
salute Mr. Brian Concannon and  his team of American and Haitian  lawyers
who were instrumental to the success of the Raboteau massacre trial and we
also salute a brave politician and justice militant, bother John Conyers of
the honorable U.S. Congressional Black Caucus, who declared :

"The years of the military government were a sad episode in Haiti's noble
history, and I will always remember the murder of Antoine Izmery as one of
the most tragic chapters.  It is especially upsetting to me that families
and friends are still crying out for justice.  I have resolved to ensure
that the U.S. Government is doing everything it can to advance
accountability for victims of the coup in Haiti.  Haiti deserves peace,
prosperity, and a final reconciliation."
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti-archive/msg00614.html

Indeed brother Conyers PEACE WITH JUSTICE ! we demand no more, we shall
settle for no less. Let there be no more CIA coups in Haiti, as the
Washington Post warned there may be still as recently as Feb 2, 2001:

« The most determined of these men, with a promise of anonymity, freely
express their desire to see the U.S. military intervene once again, this
time to get rid of Aristide and rebuild the disbanded Haitian army. "That
would be the cleanest solution," said one opposition party leader. Failing
that, they say, the CIA should train and equip Haitian officers exiled in
the neighboring Dominican Republic so they could stage a comeback
themselves.» Haiti Torn by Hope and Hatred As Aristide Returns to Power by
Edward Cody (Washington Post, February 2, 2001)

AMANDLA!

Jafrikayiti
«Haiti needs help, not unmerited manipulation. »

Larry Birns and Michael Marx McCarthy Washington-based Council on
Hemispheric Affairs

http://www.i-port.net/sd-in-j/


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