18193: erzilidanto: Fabrications emboldening the minority to commit more violence in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Erzilidanto@aol.com

One e respe la sosyete.

(This piece was posted on Windowsonhaiti by Ezili Danto, February 1, 2004 at
http://haitiforever.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1181#1181 )

No it's no game. The Bush White House aided by USAID laboratory rats "the
Haitian opposition" and the corporate media are inciting civil war in Haiti. It's
serious as a heart attack business. Live free or die Haitian business. It's
especially insulting to our ancestors in this, 2004 year, in this our
bicentennial year.

Among other things, our right-wing foes are;

Mis-using our dead:

Mis-using the cadaver of the deceased, Maxime Desalmour, kidnapped from his
family at the funeral. The unreported or under-reported facts indicate that a
certain Maxime Desalmour was killed during a January 7, 2004 minority
opposition demonstration. This January 7th demonstration turned violent when the
opposition organizers failed to adhere to the demonstration route discussed with the
police. Three people were killed that January 7, 2004 day. Two of which were
pro-government or Fanmi Lavalas, including a pro-government supporter whose
brutal beating and dumping-into-a-sewer by the opposition mob was captured on
video. (See, "Manman Ayiti, kilè wap delivre?"
http://www.haitiforever.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=626 )

The fact that the opposition is consistently breaking the law and not
following the licensed route for their demonstration, thus provoking confrontation
with the men and women of the Haitian police charged to keep order, is rarely
emphasized. The mainstream press rarely highlights the death or torture, no
less, at these demonstrations of non-opposition people like the young man with the
"Aristide for 5-years" T-shirt who was beaten to death and dumped into a twou
rigól (sewer). Nor the stealing of cadavers, by the minority opposition in
Haiti, for political purposes.

The mainstream U.S. press continued to refer to Maxime Desalmour as a
"student", eventhough Desalmour had actually graduated from the University in 93-94
according to a Haitian press service.

Later on, when it was acknowledged, by Mr. Desalmour's family that the coffin
had been kidnapped, by the minority opposition in Haiti, after the church
funeral service that morning and that the family of the deceased was pursuing the
coffin all day; later on when the Red Cross spoke with the family and the
coffin was put into the Red Cross vehicle with the objective of getting the
coffin to the cemetery in Jacmel, no mainstream press person covered this macabre
aspect and the uses of the dead to further political gains by the minority
opposition in Haiti and their right wing U.S. supporters.

But said mainstream press, from Reuters, to AP, to Washington Post, have no
problem currently mis-using the death of another Haitian, also not a student,
but according to his own grieving wife, a pro-Aristide government person who
was accidentally hit by a tear gas canister. The opposition even went so far as
to go to the hospital to demonstrate, though the accident victim, Renel
Victor, was, according to his wife, a Fanmi Lavalas person and was NOT one of them.
But, it seems, as usual, this repugnant minority opposition needed to act for
the international cameras and get it reported that "another university student"
 fell victim to "Aristide's repressive police" and was "blown-up" as NPR
reported Michael Norton’s account. For by then, the tear gas canister had become a
tear gas GRENADE for the horrified U.S. listeners trained to believe
everything negative they hear about Haitians and especially about the Aristide
government. (See Michael Norton's AP report originating out of Port-au-Prince on Jan
28, 2004. See also, US. State Department dire warnings and January 30, 2004
Reuters report re-posted this very Forum still referring to Renel Victor as a
"student" at http://www.haitiforever.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1177#1177) :
Quote:
In the latest violence, a Haitian university student was killed on Wednesday
after being hit in the torso by a tear gas canister fired by police as pro-
and anti-government protests gripped the poor Caribbean country. (Reuters, Jan.
30, 2004)

The point is there has been a systematic effort to show that all who have
died are Haitian University "students."

The point is to spin the news to show that the opposition is exercising its
civil disobedience rights and is being repressed by Haitian thugs and the
Aristide "politicized" police. But the verifiable truth is the number of
non-opposition people who have died since the 2000 elections compared to those in the
opposition killed is astronomical. Why do the mainstream journalists not put
that number into the balance? Why? Because the right-wing wants to place, in the
public, this fabrication that these few students (since their launching into
the mix on Dec. 5, 2003) are non-violent, idealistic students into pushing the
government to respect the rights of the poor and oppressed in Haiti. That
couldn't be further from the truth.

For, in fact these "students" are used as cover by the opposition and do not
represent the overwhelming majority of Haiti's future. But the opposition
needed a cover. Since for four years they have been unable to deliver for their
foreign masters. So the fabrication is to use the "students" and make as if
Aristide’s so-called repressive regime and "chimeres" are squashing "innocent
lives".

Remember, this strategy for a "student-cover" was devised after four years of
getting nowhere with their initial "opposition" propaganda campaigns that
mostly revolved around this idea Aristide government was "harassing" the
independent media, and Haiti’s free speech rights and the blatant use of the death,
may he rest in peace, of Jean Dominique. As if, in life, Mr. Dominique would
have supported these undemocratic, opposition elites and their prejudice
professors who, like the professor in Tisentaniz can't see the plight of the restaveks
in their very own homes. This sector within the minority opposition in Haiti,
these "Marxist" or "far left" or whatever "intellectuals" are so into their
theories and French pronunciations, and so removed, like PABDA, from the
grassroots people organization that they can sit at their cushy University jobs and
accept foreign invitations and make speeches and put student lives on the
line, have the sick die while they read their little books and incite more
strikes, more school closing, more demonstrations and more violence.

Point two is that part of their misinformation campaign is to show that
Aristide is using the Haitian police to repress the opposition. The understanding
the mainstream press bombards us with, is that, the opposition, is or equals,
the Haitian majority.

Thus, a prominent but elderly Haitian-American woman, Alina Sixto, goes to
Haiti to help organize the bi-centennial celebrations. For her efforts in
Gonaive, her mother's house is burnt down, her 87-year-old mother terrorized near
death. Others are similarly harassed and terrorized in Gonaive, the opposition
people burn down their houses. But we only hear about the "student"
demonstrator who was hit by a tear gas canister. No one talks about, for instance, the
cadaver the opposition stole from a funeral to conduct their "civil
disobedience" demonstrations. Or, as Paul Farmer reported, that he came across the carnage
of these opposition people where 5 from a Ministry where en route to some
government business and four where killed by these opposition militias. It seems,
AP/Reuters/New York Times/Wall Street Journal don't spend any time if it's an
ordinary Haitian that's killed. Their campaign is to oust Aristide, and
everything else is beside the point. This murderous minority opposition is left to
go on its rampage Scot-free.

Why? Because Haiti has a history of being ruled by dictators who repress and
torture the innocent, defenseless population. Now the right-wing, who helped
to create that history in Haiti, they are, in effect, using the death of all
the innocent at Fort Dimanche, the glory of the 1960s Civil Rights student
demonstrations in the U.S., the work of peaceful activists throughout the world, to
tap into the public's learned presuppositions. They support Coup d'etat and
get us killed. The right wing supported apartheid in the U.S. and got us
killed. Today our freedom fighters very fight is being used against us in Haiti.
They are, in effect saying that Aristide is doing what they themselves had done
in Haiti. But since that cannot stand verification, they fabricate their
stories to make it seem credible. Using students as cover and the idea of peaceful
demonstrations as umbrella to gain the momentum they could not gain without the
subterfuges. Is this incredible, barbarous, Machiavellian or what? Our
Haitian dead are being used, our Haitian history is being abused, our suffering is
being used and we seem to be able to just stare in disbelief.

Point three: In this our bi-centennial year, all the friends of Haiti who
haven't yet been scared off, (Danny Glover, Ron Daniels, Paul Farmer, et...) are
all being isolated and bombarded by the radical right wing. Many have lost
lucrative contracts just because they are supporting Haitian rights and/or
sponsoring an event to celebrate the year 2004 with us. Why? Because this right wing
campaign equates any celebration of Haiti's independence to mean "support for
Aristide."

Since 2000, only two journalists have been killed in Haiti and reliable
sources say one of those journalists wasn't killed for his professional work but as
a revenge killing. Yet, the pattern of misinformation, half truths, outright
fabrication and smear campaign against, not only the Haitian people, but
against, allowing Haitians to, without obstructions, freely celebrate this
bi-centennial year continues. The mainstream press' reports along with the US State
Department reports serve only to EMBOLDEN and empower the 2% to 4% undemocratic
few within the Haitian population, referred to as the "opposition" to continue
to block and boycott planned bi-centennial events like crusingintohistory and
others, to continue to burn, murder with impunity and to continue keeping our
children from going to school in Haiti and to continue to financially
obstruct the livelihood of the already poor urban workers and rural peasants in
Haiti.

To that extent we, in the Diaspora are being financially and materially
disadvantaged and irreparably hurt by these fabrication of the mainstream press; to
that extent it's way past time to mobilize and show our ancestors we won't
allow this sacred 2004 year to be used by our historical foes to further their
own undemocratic, immoral agendas; to that extent we need to protect our true
friends of Haiti who are being isolated and boycotted simply because they want
to help Haitians celebrate their ancestors 200-year old achievement, or want
to tell the real story of Haiti to the world.

It’s important that we come out of the woodwork and say clearly and in
unison: If the minority opposition groups in Haiti want Aristide to be replaced,
they must do so through a democratic process, not by violent street
demonstrations and strikes that are being passed-off in the Western media as "civil
disobedience" and certainly not by another coup d'etat. We must come together and
expose the lies about our people and say to all and sundry "Most of the Haitian
people in Haiti have not urged Aristide to resign. And that the majority of
Haiti's citizens freely elected Aristide and wish him to remain in power until
his term expires." That Haitians have a right to self-determination and
self-rule just like all other nations.

Pep-mwen, mobilize in 2004. In the coming US-presidential election season,
this radical right wing cannot stand a mobilized, unified and
connected-to-progressive-coalition Haitian Diaspora exposing said Bush neocons policies in Haiti
and toward Haitians as racist, murderous, or that it has been using the
weight of the federal government and the credibility of the mainstream press to
launch these sort of regime change tactics in Haiti.

I feel right now I am just a voice in the wilderness. Reaching no one. Yet,
to remain quiet is not an option. Each one teach one and let's join hands, for
our dignity, for our ancestors, to stand up for our basic humanity.

Ezili Danto