16879: This Week in Haiti 21:29 10/1/2003 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                      October 01 - 07, 2003
                         Vol. 21, No. 29

DEMONSTRATIONS MULTIPLY AS U.S. PRESSURE ON HAITI GROWS

Tens of thousands marched through the streets of Port-au-Prince
on Sep. 30 to condemn foreign destabilization of Haiti and the
threat of another coup d'état against the elected government of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The date marked the 12th
anniversary of the 1991 coup which left some 5,000 Haitians dead
over the course of three years.

The march, which flooded through the capital's downtown and into
the Champ de Mars city square, was organized by the National
Popular Party (PPN) and joined by thousands of partisans of
Aristide's Lavalas Family party and affiliated popular
organizations.

The show of force comes after a week of demonstrations by the
"Cannibal Army" popular organization in Gonaïves following the
assassination of its leader Amiot "Cuban" Métayer.

On Sep. 21, the charismatic "Cuban" had left his home in the
Gonaïves slum of Raboteau with Odonel Paul, a former employee in
the National Palace under President René Préval (1996-2001) and
leader of another Gonaïves popular organization, Modlin.
Métayer's bullet-riddled body was found the next day at Bas-Gros-
Morne, a desolate zone near St. Marc. He had been shot
ritualistically in both eyes and through the heart. Paul and his
family have disappeared.

Washington and the Organization of American States (OAS) had
repeatedly demanded that Haitian authorities arrest Métayer,
generally one of the government's staunchest defenders, for
allegedly directing violence on Dec. 17, 2001. On that date,
angry crowds around Haiti attacked the headquarters and homes of
opposition leaders after 30 armed men briefly took over and shot
up the National Palace, killing two policemen.

Authorities had arrested Métayer on another charge last summer
but he escaped from the Gonaïves jail with 150 other prisoners on
Aug. 2, 2002 when his partisans drove a bulldozer through the
prison wall. Although angry for a while at the Aristide
government, "Cuban" soon was reconciled. Charges against him were
dropped earlier this year.

Métayer's younger brother, Buteur, blames the grisly murder on
Aristide, saying that the government wanted to "get rid of
'Cuban' because he was a political impediment." The charge has
been warmly embraced and echoed by Haiti's airwave-dominant
right-wing media and the U.S. corporate press.

The government vehemently rejects the accusation, charging that
Métayer's killing only serves the interests of opposition forces
trying to destabilize Haiti and sabotage parliamentary and
municipal elections scheduled for November and December. "Amiot
Métayer's assassination is an unacceptable crime which we
condemn," declared Aristide on his return to Haiti after
addressing the 58th United Nations General Assembly on Sep. 26.
"Are the arms that killed him the same as those which have killed
more than 26 people in the Central Plateau including four
Interior Ministry employees [on Jul. 25] in broad daylight?" For
over two years, anti-government guerillas have carried out
assassinations and attacks on police stations around Haiti,
primarily on the Central Plateau (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No.
2, 3/26/2003). Generally referred to as the "armed wing of the
opposition," the guerrillas appear to be trained and based in the
neighboring Dominican Republic and are composed mainly of former
soldiers from the disbanded Haitian army.

"We believe the reactionary sectors, controlled and funded by
Washington, are behind the murder of Amiot Métayer," said
Evariste Wilson, the PPN's assistant secretary general, as the
multitude of demonstrators stopped in front of the U.S. Embassy
in Port-au-Prince on Sep. 30. "They are trying to sow confusion
and division in the ranks of the popular sector. So we call on
those who were close 'Cuban' in Gonaïves not to fall into their
trap."

The demonstrators carried placards which read "Washington, OAS,
the Haitian people don't usually lose battles" and "We will
celebrate 2004, or else we will make another 1804." Jan. 1, 2004
will mark the bicentennial of Haiti's independence, the
culmination of a bitter 13 year slave revolution.

Addressing the demonstrators massed in front of the National
Palace, PPN leader Ben Dupuy urged the Haitian government to
press on with organizing elections and declared that his party
would participate. The demonstration closed with the burning of
an effigy of 1991 coup leader ex-Gen. Raoul Cédras, who enjoys a
comfortable U.S.-facilitated exile in Panama, and a black coffin
symbolizing the coup's repression.

Meanwhile, Washington's pressure is growing on the Aristide
government on other fronts. Last week, senior State Department
officials met with members of CARICOM to suggest that remittances
from overseas Haitians be cut off as a sanction against Haiti.
CARICOM representatives recoiled at the proposal. It would
strangle the Haitian economy which receives over $800 million in
remittances annually, the country's largest revenue stream by
far.

U.S. President George W. Bush also met with CARICOM leaders from
the Bahamas, Grenada, Guyana and St. Lucia at the U.N. in New
York last week to discuss issues including Haiti. Bahamian Prime
Minister Perry Christie requested that Washington collaborate
with his country in building a military base on Great Inagua, the
Bahama's southernmost large island. Christie suggested that the
U.S. could use it as an "outpost" to interdict drug and human
smugglers, according to the Nassau Guardian. Bush "had his
officials there and indicated that he would follow it up,"
Christie said.

Caption: Thousands of Haitians massed in front of the National
Palace on the anniversary of the Sep. 30 coup to denounce the
destabilization of the Haitian government by Washington and its
allies in the Haitian opposition.

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