21438: This Week in Haiti 22:05 4/14/2004 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        April 14 - 20, 2004
                          Vol. 22, No. 5


U.S./FRENCH OCCUPATION DENOUNCED:
MASSIVE BROOKLYN RALLY BARES TRUTH BEHIND HAITI'S FEB. 29 COUP

by Greg Dunkel

Every time the drums of La Troupe Makandal sounded, the speechmaker's
words became a call to action, a demand for redress, for reparations.
The audience was alive with anger over the U.S. and French role in the
Feb. 29th coup against President Jean Bertrand Aristide and wanted to
express its pride in the Haitian people's rich 200 year history of
resistance to racist repression and repeated occupations. People voiced
their fury loudly and often.

The rally, entitled "The Truth Behind the Haiti Coup," at Brooklyn
College's Whitman Theater April 7, in the heart of the Haitian community
in Brooklyn, was a full house, around 2,000 people, predominantly Black
and a majority Haitian. The theater was so full that campus security did
not let latecomers in until someone else left. And this was on a weekday
night.

After the well-known African American actor Ossie Davis read from
Frederick Douglass' 1893 speech on Haiti, Kim Ives, a journalist with
HaVti-ProgrPs and member of Haiti Support Network, set the focus of the
rally. "The government set in place by U.S. Marines in 2004," he said,
"just as the one in 1915, is illegal, illegitimate and foisted on the
Haitian people." He went on to outline the role the United States played
in organizing and implementing the coup.

Ives was one of the delegation that first made contact with Pres. Jean-
Bertrand Aristide in Bangui, Central African Republic, and also was one
of the delegation from the Commission of Inquiry that went to the
Dominican Republic the week of March 29 to investigate the role that
country played in the coup.

Dr. Luis Barrios, active in Puerto Rican and Dominican community in NY,
an Episcopal priest and professor at John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, was another member of the Commission that went to the Dominican
Republic.

He presented their preliminary findings: "Our investigation has
established that the territory of the Dominican Republic was used for
the training and arming of the so-called Haitian rebels with the
knowledge of the Dominican government." Pres. Hipolito Mejia controlled
and protected Guy Philippe, who operated on Dominican territory from
2000 to 2004 when he led an armed band into Haiti.

The depth of support for Haiti among African Americans in the United
States was revealed, when two senior members of the Congressional Black
Caucus spoke, Rep. Major Owens (D-NY) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Cal).
Rep. Owens' district includes the site of the rally. He promised to keep
the Feb. 29th coup a live issue in the U.S. Congress and to keep on
pushing for a UN investigation.

Rep. Maxine Waters talks to Pres. Aristide every day and was part of the
delegation that picked him up in Bangui and accompanied him to Jamaica.
She started her speech, saying "I am a member of the Congress of the
United States and I support Pres. Aristide. I support Haiti."

She witnessed a lot of the negotiations and activities in Haiti during
January and February of this year, and commented on how Aristide was
willing to compromise but opposition leaders, like sweatshop magnate
André Apaid, Jr., was not. She felt that the U.S. removed Aristide
because he would not run away.

She ended her talk saying "Ayiti se manman libPte" (Haiti is the mother
of liberty), which brought the audience to its feet.

Ben Dupuy, general secretary of the National Popular Party (PPN) and
co-director of HaVti-ProgrPs, said "U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
calls investigations into the latest Haitian coup, even that called for
by CARICOM, a waste of time. This shows how much they fear the truth
getting out. To add insult to injury, the U.S. is promoting diversionary
investigations into Aristide's alleged drug trafficking, human rights
abuses and corruption. Meanwhile, to carry out their coup, Washington is
collaborating with death-squad leaders and soldiers universally
recognized as corrupt drug-dealing human rights abusers. Even U.S.
government officials, from former President Clinton to Powell, have
called them criminals and thugs." He compared the attempt to find drugs
and drug-money in the National Palace to U.S. attempts to find "weapons
of mass destruction" in Iraq.

The PPN offered critical support to Aristide's Lavalas Family party in
the months leading up to the coup and continues to lead resistance. It
was part of the broad movement, at the time called Lavalas and
symbolized by Aristide, that emerged after Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc")
Duvalier fled Haiti in 1986.

Dupuy told the Haitian community not to feel discouraged."We have to
remember that in 1802, when Toussaint was kidnapped, the struggle really
started," he said.

Mario Dupuy, Secretary of State for Communications and Aristide's
personal representative to the meeting, asserted that "we are facing a
new challenge, like the one in 1802-1803. The Haitian people must now
confront a coup-napping," in other words a coup carried out by means of
kidnapping.

Teresa Gutierrez, who went to the Dominican Republic as member of the
Haitian Commission of Inquiry's delegation, pointed out "George Bush
says he wants to fight terrorism, but in Haiti the U.S. urged terrorist
groups to overthrow Aristide and to take over the government." She also
highlighted the irony that "in Cuba, for over 40 years the U.S. has
given support to terrorists working ... right out of Miami." Gutierrez
is a member of the Committee to Free the Cuban Five, the Cuban
undercover agents Washington has now jailed for life for infiltrating
and monitoring the terrorist movement in southern Florida.

Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center, which
sponsored the rally along with the Haiti Support Network, denounced the
U.S. occupation of Haiti and Iraq. "All the U.S. plans for Haiti are
unraveling because people are so outraged at this criminal act [the
coup] ... With great publicity Colin Powell announced a new aid package
for Haiti of $9 million for the 8 million people of Haiti. That equals
$1.10 for each Haitian. ... A billion dollars a day was spent to bomb
Iraq. There is endless money for war and conquest. But no money for
people's needs here or anywhere in the world."

She called for an urgent march on Washington because the same U.S. tanks
used in Falluja and Baghdad are used in Port-au-Prince.

Poet and dancer Marguerite Laurent and members of the compas band
Phantoms thrilled the hall with sterling performances.

Among the other prominent speakers were former U.S. Attorney General
Ramsey Clark, WBAI Radio's Don Rojas, Bernard White, host of Democracy
Now Amy Goodman, Haitian unionist Ray Laforest, and Alina Sixto,
coordinator of Fanmi Lavalas in the New York Tri-State area.

The program ended with acclaimed filmmaker Katharine Kean presenting a
video tape she made of Aristide speaking in the Central African Republic
and an audio taped message about the Haitian coup from death row
political prisoner and journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal.

"The success of tonight's event shows how deep and broad the opposition
to the February 29th coup is," said Ives after the program. "The huge
response to the April 7th rally should give both Washington and the
Haitian putschists pause." Clearly, future demonstrations and protest
can be built on this success.

LEGAL DELEGATION PRODUCES SCATHING REPORT ON HAITI

(First of two installments)

>From Mar. 29 to Apr. 5, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) sent a
three-member delegation to investigate the current human rights
situation in Haiti. It was the first phase of an investigation which
will continue in Haiti's north this month.

On Apr. 11, the delegation issued a report which found Haiti's human
rights situation "grave," citing "overwhelming evidence" that Lavalas
partisans are being targeted and killed in numbers far larger than
reported by the press. The delegation also found anti-Aristide human
rights groups like the Lawyers Committee for the Respect of Individual
Liberties (CARLI) and the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR)
complacent and even dismissive of the violence.

The delegation consisted of Thomas Griffin, a human rights and
immigration lawyer from Philadelphia, Judy DaCruz, a human rights lawyer
from Mauritius based in Haiti, and Edward Carlson, a journalist and
immigration advocate in Philadelphia. They visited Port-au-Prince, Petit
Goâve, Grand Goâve and Les Cayes, in southwestern Haiti. The delegation
also spent time in Fond des Blancs, a remote southwestern village that
typifies life of the Haitian peasantry.

Here, in the first of two installments, we will reproduce most of this
important summary report, authored by Griffin. A more detailed report,
with photos, will be issued soon.

Summary Report of Haiti Human Rights Delegation - March 29 to April 5,
2004
by Thomas M. Griffin

April 11, 2004

In general, the delegation found the human rights situation grave. The
conditions are especially precarious and evidence little hope for
improvement due to the almost total lack of knowledge about, and media
attention to, the human rights abuses taking place. Layered upon the
gravity, there is a general sense in the people of insecurity due to,
among other things, (I) killings, (ii) curfews, (iii) the lack of police
or any form of working judicial system, (iv) patrols of private,
heavily-armed militias, (v) the doubling or tripling of food and fuel
prices, (vi) the fall of the Haitian currency against the U.S. dollar,
(vii) an abnormal lack of electricity in the cities, and (vii) the
unauthorized return of the uniformed and armed soldiers of Haitian Army
that President Aristide had decommissioned in 1994 for its historical
oppression of Haiti's poor.

Although a 3,600 member multinational military force (U.S., French, and
Canadian marines) is present, its patrols are confined to the city of
Port-au-Prince and, within Port-au-Prince, it is generally seen only in
the poorest of the crowded slum neighborhoods (e.g., Cite Soleil, Bel
Aire, La Saline).

Finally, the delegation found overwhelming evidence that the victims of
the threats and violence have been supporters of the elected government
of President Aristide and the Fanmi Lavalas party, elected and appointed
officials in that government or party, or employees of the government,
including police. Many are in hiding in the mountains or in
Port-au-Prince, others have been beaten and or killed. Many of their
homes have been selectively destroyed, mostly by arson.

What follows are bullet-point findings of the delegation's first phase.
A more detailed report will follow.

I. The Situation in Port-au-Prince

a. General Information

-10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew enforced by HNP and multinational force.

-many neighborhoods without electricity or water since Feb. 29th (water
flow depends on electric pump)

-gas prices doubled since Feb. 29th, hindering private and public
transportation

-U.S. dollar trading for 7.5 to 8.0 Haitian dollars

-people generally unaware of who government is, what the near future
holds, and generally unaware of human rights abuses taking place; all
aware that it is not safe to be on the side of the elected government or
to be known as a Lavalas member, associate, or supporter

b. Repression of Popular Organizations

-Leaders of almost every popular organization ("OPs") (dozens of
grassroots groups throughout the country that formed to work with the
elected government to address basic community needs) have been
threatened or killed.

-None of them are living at home. Those from outlying areas have gone
into hiding in Port-au-Prince, and have not seen their families since
March 1, 2004. Others have gone into hiding in the mountains, taking
spouses and children.

-Former militaries and opposition supporters continue to visit the homes
of OP leaders that have not been burned to keep them from coming home
and to intimidate neighbors.

-Many have had their homes destroyed by arson. The majority of the
arsons took place in the first week of March, but continued during our
delegation. The threats have been carried out by former militaries and
FRAPH members as well as other supporters of the opposition.

-All OP leaders who have sought asylum at the U.S. Embassy have been
turned away. They have also been turned away by the embassies of Canada,
France, Mexico, and Venezuela.

-All government funding and other support to the OPs has been summarily
cut off. This includes the closing of literacy programs, food and
shelter programs, and orphanages.

-All OP leaders pleaded with the Delegation to ask the current
government to provide security to return to their homes with their
families, to return to schools and jobs, or, in the alternative, to open
the path to asylum.

c. The Multinational Military Force

There is a general tension in the people of the city due to the
intermittent presence and patrolling of marines. They typically spend
hours standing in small groups in targeted neighborhoods in full battle
uniform, holding automatic rifles. In the evenings, they will
occasionally select a city street and walk it with pairs of soldiers
slowly walking in one direction on both sides of the street, followed by
two or three patrol vehicles full of soldiers bringing up the rear.

Some believe that the marines have killed approximately 8 people in
Port-au-Prince to date, though the Delegation had heard reports of more
than five times that amount. There remain questions as to whether the
actions by marines, including arrests, and home searches, violate the
Haitian constitution. Families do not feel confident to refuse a home
search.

Marines interviewed by the delegation stated that they are not a "police
force" but are merely maintaining security in the city until a permanent
U.N. peace force takes over.

(To be continued)

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