19660: Esser: Haiti's Youth Fear The Return Of The Killers Of Street Children (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Haiti's Youth Fear The Return Of The Killers Of Street Children

Youth Commentary, By Johnny,
Pacific News Service, Mar 02, 2004

EDITOR'S NOTE: Johnny (last name withheld for his safety), 18, is a
former youth reporter with Radyo Timoun (Children's Radio) 90.9 FM in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This week rebels looted and burned it along
with the Aristide Foundation For Democracy in which the station was
located. Johnny told his story to PNS contributor, Lyn Duff, a
freelance writer who had worked with Radyo Timoun 9 years ago. Duff
reached him in Port-au-Prince via telephone.

BY JOHNNY, PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - I was living in the gutter, dressing in old
clothes and begging at the airport when President Aristide took
office in 1990. One of the first things Titid [as President Aristide
was popularly known] did when he moved into the National Palace was
invite a group of children who sleep in the streets to visit the
Palace and speak out about the conditions of the street children.

I heard on the radio the voice of Little Sony, one of the street
children, speaking from the National Palace about the rights of
children and I knew that the lives of the children in Haiti would
change.

When Titid became president he told the world that we street children
were people, we had value, that we were human beings.

Many adults didn't like this message. They said we were dirty and
should be thrown out like the trash that we are. But Titid loved us
and when I met him, he kissed me and put his hand on my face and told
me he loved me. And they were not the empty words of a politician.

During the first coup in 1991 the street kids were attacked and
Lafanmi Selavi [a shelter for homeless children started by Aristide
when he was a parish priest] was burned. Aristide came back from
exile in October 1994 and it was a new world for the children. Three
years of horror were over.

I was just a little child at that time but with Titid I felt
important. We went to Titid and told him that we wanted to have a
voice in democracy, to have a voice for children and he gave us Radyo
Timoun. We were the first children's radio station in the world, run
by children and promoting the human rights of all Haitians. We spoke
on the air about the news, about our hopes and opinions. Adults all
over the country heard our voices and were forced to accept that we
children are people too.

In the past eight years the radio station has gone through many
changes and transitions; it was criticized and vandalized but we knew
that behind mountains there are more mountains. The radio station was
moved from Lafanmi Selavi to the Aristide Foundation for Democracy.

Yesterday at the Foundation I saw gangsters and criminals in army
uniforms destroy the hopes and dreams of the Haitian people. They
destroyed the building, burned books and killed many people. A new
government run by these people will surely only be bad not only for
the children but for all the people of Haiti.

I do not believe that President Aristide has abandoned us to this
misery. There is no electricity so it is hard to find news about what
is really happening but I have heard he was forced to leave and I
believe that. He would never leave us willingly. Last week Titid said
on the radio he would die before he would give up the struggle for
democracy in Haiti.

Right now it is hard to survive and we don't know what we will do to
find food and water. There are gangs everywhere in army clothes,
looting and burning, attacking people and robbing those that are
weaker. Everyone is fearful for the present and for the future.

The U.S. Marines stood by and did nothing while the library at the
Aristide Foundation was burned. With my own eyes I saw the American
Marines stand and watch while rebels cut a woman and shot her. I
yelled at them, "Do something!" and they swung their guns around
toward me and yelled, "Get back!"

While I hid in a field the American Marines put their hats on the
bodies of dead people and posed for pictures with them. It made me
sick because in Haiti we respect the dead. The Americans scare me; I
don't believe that they want anything good for the Haitian people
because they support the criminals who oppose democracy.

We are fearful of the old army because they are those who killed the
street children of Lafanmi Selavi. They killed the peasants in the
North who wanted to have democracy and supported Aristide.

A new government has no hope for the children of Haiti. I am scared,
I think the criminals will try to kill me too because I am one of
Titid's boys. But I am not just scared for myself. I am scared for
all the children of Haiti. And today I cannot stop crying. .
.