20415: Saint-Vil : Occupying forces must be held accoutable ! (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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


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.


The Killers Of Haiti's Street Children
by Johnny

see www.blackcommentator.com

The following article first appeared on Pacific News Service.

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. Last 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.

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 st reet 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.

----------

These urgent cries are from flesh and blood...children, women and men.

Let us not be fooled by the reports that only six people have been killed by
the Marines so far. WE NEED AN INVESTIGATION IMMEDIATELY !!! The senseless
assassinations must stop now. The occupying forces cannot hyde behind the
puppet duo of Boniface a nd Latortue to pretend they are not the ones running
the killing machinery.

As was the case in 1915, only the bravest of Americans have the guts to stand
by the Haitian people while this wholesale slaughter takes place.

James Weldon Jonhson did not have the benefit of the internet, tv and radio to
stand for what was right then. Today we MUST use every means available to help
stop the slaughter of these defenseless people.

Please, do you part...send these reports to your points of contact everywhere.
Ask them to help....Many lives may still be salvaged.

Regards,
Jafrikayiti

«Depi nan Ginen bon nèg ap ede nèg!»
http://www.jafrikayiti.com

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