17215: Lemieux: Bay Herald:Haiti is the mother of liberty (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

‘Haiti is the mother of liberty’

Speaking at UN, President Aristide calls for reparations

by Saeed Shabazz

Special to the NNPA from the Final Call


Lucien Noel, 9, holds a poster of Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide during a demonstration Friday.
United Nations (NNPA) - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, president
of Haiti, after stating that slavery was a crime against
humanity, told the United Nations General Assembly this
generation has the ''duty'' to call for ''restitution and
reparations.''

In a recent address at the U.N., Aristide spoke about the
genocide inflicted on the 15 million Africans taken as
slaves and brought to Haitian soil in 1502.

''For three centuries, my continent provided 70 percent of
the world’s gold reserves, which would equal 2,849,000 tons
of gold evaluated at $36 billion U.S. currency,'' Aristide
argued. He added that Haiti, though impoverished, would
continue to shine like a gleaming beacon beyond the
starkness of colonization.

''Haiti is the mother of liberty, and its sons and
daughters are the product of that liberty,'' Aristide said.
He also called Haiti the geographical axis for the freedom
of all Blacks.

The General Assembly loudly applauded. A long line of
diplomats and officials waited to greet him in the
Indonesian Lounge behind the General Assembly hall.

While President Aristide used the General Assembly debate
to push for reparations, other diplomats spoke of the need
to strengthen the General Assembly.

Julian Robert Hunte of Saint Lucia, president of the 58th
session of the General Assembly, called for the
revitalization and strengthening of the body. He said that
current global problems and challenges had opened a window
for the General Assembly to broaden its impact on global
affairs.

''The people of the world look to the United Nations for
hope in implementing solutions to their problems,'' Hunte
said. He expressed hope that the General Assembly was ready
to break new ground and record significant accomplishments.

''However, that would require choosing principle over
expediency, precision over ambiguity, objectivity over
bias, creative thinking over inflexibility,'' Hunte stated.

Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Perez Roquez
charged that United Nations is impotent. ''Frankly, what
role did the General Assembly play today?'' asked Roquez.
''Almost none, really,'' he said. ''The unilateral action
in Iraq, as well as the imposition of a near 40-year
economic blockade on Cuba was proof of that,'' Roquez
argued.

''The New World order should be founded on the honest and
generous recognition by the only remaining superpower that
it should contribute to, and not interfere with, the
creation of a peaceful planet, where everyone is entitled
to justice and development,'' Roquez said.

Still, he is not ready to give up.

He said, “We cannot relinquish the United Nations and we
cannot and should not relinquish the struggle for a world
of peace, justice, equality and development for all.''




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