21319: This Week in Haiti 22:3 3/31/2004 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French
and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100,
(fax) 718-434-5551 or e-mail at <editor@haitiprogres.com>.
Also visit our website at <www.haitiprogres.com>.

                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        March 31 - April 6, 2004
                             Vol. 22, No. 3

COMMISSION INVESTIGATION FINDS U.S. AND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BACKED
HAITIAN "REBELS"

The governments of the U.S. and the Dominican Republic aided and
abetted in the arming and training of dozens, possibly hundreds,
of Haitians in the Dominican Republic to overthrow the
democratically elected government in neighboring Haiti.

This was the conclusion of the Haiti Commission of Inquiry after
a four-day fact-finding trip to the Dominican Republic.

The six-member delegation announced its preliminary findings to a
packed press conference at the Renaissance Jaragua Hotel in Santo
Domingo on Mar. 29, 2004. The charges sparked a storm of
controversy and debate in the Dominican press. The issue is a
highly charged one during an already supercharged presidential
campaign. President Hipòlito Mejia, whose approval rating is
lurking at about 6%, is fighting for his political life against a
host of challengers in elections set for May 16.

"Our purpose has been to investigate when, where, why and how the
leaders of the so-called rebel forces were able to train and arm
themselves in the Dominican Republic, despite the Mejia
government's repeated assurances to the Haitian government over
three years preceding [the coup of ] February 29, 2004 that no
such guerilla movement was being harbored or tolerated here,"
said delegate Teresa Gutierrez of the International Action Center
(IAC). "We also want to understand how the leaders of the so-
called rebel forces were shielded from arrest, despite being
convicted in Haiti and other countries."

The Haiti Commission of Inquiry is an organization which was
first formed in 1991 on the initiative of former U.S. attorney general
Ramsey Clark
following the first coup against President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. It has been revived today following Aristide's
kidnapping and exile by U.S. troops on February 29.

The delegation also pointed to the role played by the U.S.
government in the Dominican theater of operations. Former U.S.
Special Forces soldier Stan Goff said that Operation Jaded Task,
which deployed 200 U.S. Special Forces soldiers along the
Dominican/Haitian border in February 2003, "was anything but
routine," as the Pentagon has declared.

Noting that the supposed "counter-terrorism exercise" was
conducted closer to the border than any previous U.S. military
exercise (thanks to a secret special authorization issued by
Mejia), Goff said that it involved an "unusually large American
military task force" in a zone from which anti-Aristide
guerrillas were carrying out regular attacks against Haitian
government facilities. "It's happening at that particular time
raises some very serious questions," he said.

The delegation met with close to 40 people including Dominican
journalists, lawyers, priests, academics, government officials,
former government employees, former military officers, political
party leaders and community leaders.

It also met with Haitian citizens and officials who had fled for
their lives, "Refugees from the town of St. Marc described for us
what happened there on February 29," said Kim Ives, a journalist
with Haiti Progrès and a member of the Haiti Support Network.
"Seven young people, including two pairs of young brothers, were
macheted or shot to death by pro-coup forces. The mutilated
bodies were then paraded around the town and dragged by a rope
behind a truck to terrorize the rest of the town's population.
They were then burned."

Brian Concannon, a former United Nations human rights official
and lawyer who has helped prosecute torturers and killers in
Haiti over the past 8 years, outlined the illegality of the coup
and the Dominican Republic's legal obligations under the
Organization of American States charter to not accept or abet an
unconstitutional power transfer in another member state.

"Support for the coup by the United States, the Dominican
Republic and other countries was illegal under international law
including the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the Charter
of the Organization of American States," explained Dr. Luis
Barrios, who was a missionary in the Dominican Republic for nine
years and who today is a professor of criminal justice at John
Jay College in New York City.

Barrios is also a prominent community leader in New York's Puerto
Rican and Dominican communities as well as an acting priest in
the Episcopal Church. After he read the Commission's preliminary
report in Spanish, a well-known right-wing TV personality
disrupted the press conference by shouting that the delegation
had been sent by Aristide to sow trouble between Haiti and the
Dominican Republic. Jeered by the rest of the press corps and
responded to by Barrios, the heckler soon left the room.

Father Rogelio Cruz, a hugely popular liberation theologian
priest of national stature, also attended the press conference
and expressed strong support for the Commission's work.

Katharine Kean, a film director who has made several films about
Haiti, was a part of the delegation as its documenter. Along with
Ives, Concannon, and two IAC members, she had traveled to Bangui,
Central African Republic March 7, the first visit of a delegation
to President Aristide after his exile. She then stayed in Bangui
after that delegation left but returned March 15 with Aristide to
the Caribbean on a chartered jet in a delegation led by Rep.
Maxine Waters (D-CA). A message from Aristide that she filmed on
that trip will be shown during an April 7 event at Brooklyn
College's Whitman Theater. Waters, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and
delegates from the Haiti Commission's trip to the Dominican
Republic will also speak at the event.


IN OUR BICENTENNIAL YEAR:
HOW HAITI'S SACRIFICE IS UNITING THE WORLD
by Marguerite Laurent

So much innocent Haitian blood has been spilled since January 1,
2004. But throughout history, Haitian blood has paved the way for
African dignity and survival. It's a crushing weight, but one
that we and our ancestors have borne as Haitians over the past
200 years.

We have witnessed a river of blood and senseless killings,
detentions and arbitrary arrests. Despite it all,  2004 is
already Haiti's miracle year: she has united the African Union
and CARICOM.

Like founding father Jean-Jacques Dessalines' army, we are
rising. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin has
suddenly cancelled his "triumphant visit" to Haiti because his
government suffered a major loss in the French elections. We have
to wonder whether the French electorate is sending the French
government a message about its military intervention into Haiti.
The French are beginning to realize that the Haitian people's
demand for $21.7 billion in restitution hasn't gone away, despite
the coup d'état orchestrated by the U.S. and France on February
29, 2004. In fact, the cycle of debt, dependency and foreign
domination tearing Haiti apart for 200 years has been highlighted
by the intervention. All the world can see  how the constant
interference by the Euro/U.S. nations is intended to keep Haiti
impoverished.

The blood of the African ancestors is at work.. Frantic and
desperate pressure by the neocon clique   Roger Noreiga, Colin
Powell, and Condi Rice   has failed to move CARICOM... for now.
Its 15-member nations, along with Venezuela, have refused to
recognize the de facto government which Washington set in place
in Haiti.

Dessalines' army is rising.

Despite ten years of a constant U.S./Euro destabilization
campaign from 1994 to 2004, Haitians still built more schools
than ever in Haiti's history. We built hospitals and public parks
in the poorest neighborhoods. We put more electricity in more
towns than ever before. The government recognized the Vodun
culture. It brought the literacy rate down from 85% to 48%. It
recognized Kreyòl as one of our official languages, and Haitians
wrote more books in Kreyòl than ever before. Haitians from the
diaspora sent to Haiti more than $850 million a year. These are
our accomplishments. We may celebrate them. They are the facts
hidden behind the headlines. Let's not forget our miracles
accomplished despite the past ten years of U.S./Euro
destabilization.

In 2004, despite imperialism's coup d'état in Haiti, let us
commit to:
1. Celebrate our ancestors' great victory and our rich Vodun-
based culture. Despite the lies, Black civilization, beauty, law
and justice in Haiti shall rise.
2. Empower the poor and now disenfranchised in Haiti. We shall
continue to mobilize human rights monitors to help save the lives
of the Haitian poor, who are now in the greatest jeopardy since
the last U.S.-backed dictatorship years in Haiti.
3. Mobilize the vote against Bush, Jr. We shall continue to
mobilize the Haitian-American vote and to connect it with the
grassroots U.S. movement working to reclaim U.S. democracy. We
will lift the boot Bush has put on our Haitian dream for
democracy, on our people's neck in Haiti and on those
"indefinitely detained." This time the Black vote shall count!
4. Support the people of Jamaica for their stand for Haitian
democracy. Let us thank the nations of CARICOM and the African
Union who recognize that the will of the Haitian majority was not
respected by the powerful nations in the world.
5. Call for the $21.7 billion debt owed by France to Haiti not to
be forgotten. This restitution, on the contrary, should be
expedited;
6. Call for the murderers, ex-army and FRAPH mercenaries to be
deported to the U.S. or France where they may join their bosses;
7. Use this opportunity to show the world that democracy in Haiti
is not just about President Aristide. The Haitian people, and
Haitian women in particular, have a right to life, shelter,
security, education, health care, justice, and freedom of
association and speech.

Coup d'état or no coup d'état, Haitians have the richest culture
in the Western Hemisphere and defeated Napoleon, Britain, Spain
and a U.S. embargo back in 1803. We were the first to put liberty
into application in the Western Hemisphere. No other. That is
part of what it means to be Haitian. That is the Haitian identity
that has survived embargoes, 32 U.S./Euro sponsored coup d'états
and slavery before that. We shall overcome this U.S./France
orchestrated coup d'état also. No matter how many dollars and
euros France, Canada and the U.S. mobilize against us, we will
continue our struggle for liberty and rights for the wretched of
Haiti and the earth.

-------------------------
Marguerite Laurent is a Haitian-American poet, author, dancer,
and lawyer living in Connecticut. She heads the Haitian Lawyers
Leadership Network.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.

                               -30-