21578: radtimes: A Message From Occupied Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

A Message From Occupied Haiti

by Charlie <lifewish@lmi.net>
April 26, 2004

Hi All,

I sincerely hope this gets to everybody.  I've been trying for a week
to  put this together, but there hasn't been time, electricity has
gone  out, computers haven't worked, etc. etc.

My "site" is the Aristide foundation, a really nice large compound on
the  outskirts of the city, that so far has escaped destruction. It's
pretty  well fortified, which i'm sure helps, and has people sleeping there
around  the clock. I've been out there every day for a few hours. I'll be
there  quite a while tomorrow, since there will be quite a few people.
Before the  coup it was really a hub, including up to 65 classes a week and
big  meetings of different groups (like market women)

I've heard a number of testimonies from people whose lives are in
danger,  who are in hiding, and are without means to support
themselves.  Many are fleeing to the Dominican Republic (which shares a
border with Haiti on the  island of Hispanola). They need money there, but
at least they are safe  from gangs and death squads. The opposition is
absolutely vicious. They  have burned many homes. Lyn went to the morgue in
the city of Gonaives and  counted 21 burned corpses and another 13 who had
been shot. No one would  claim the bodies, out of fear of being identified
with the dead.

In the northern city of Cap Haitien, 24 corpses were found in a
container  truck. The men had been left in the locked container for 3 days
to cook to  death, then the truck was shoved into the sea. Last week a
pro-Aristide  student organizer who had been in hiding since the coup
attempted to return  to Law School, since it's his last year and he wanted
to graduate. He was  viciously beaten, and barely escaped alive. It's not
uncommon to hear  machine gun fire at night (there's a 10:00 curfew) and
bodies often turn up  in the morning. Several houses were burned just last
night in the Cite  Soleil slum.  This is the level of brutality with which
we are dealing.

But as a "blanc" I will more than likely be safe. There is an
incredible  hatred of the Bush family among Lavalas supporters, even more
passionate  and vitriolic than in many parts of SF.  Pro Aristide graffiti
abounds.  The poverty is almost overwhelming.  Hundreds of thousands of
people work as street vendors, selling out of  little baskets of goods, and
earning only pennies a day. These people are  the Lavalas (Aristide's
party) base, and since their numbers are only  increasing as a result of
the coup, Lavalas support is not going away.

But that's clearly the goal of the US occupation, with all their
camouflaged  and trigger happy troops. Pro-Aristide supporters are being
fired from jobs  and driven out of every institution.  Three men in hiding
from Gonaives said  that between 10-20% of the ENTIRE population of the
city have fled.  Normal  life has been completely disrupted for virtually
an entire country.  You  wonder how much more it can take. Life is so
incredibly hard. There's  almost no electricity.  Public transportation is
slow and expensive (gas  costs more than $3.00 a gallon.)

There's very little work, and wages have  been cut dramatically since the
coup, as prices for basic goods has soared.  The wealthy who supported the
coup are rewarding themselves handsomely,  just like the Bush Republicans
in the United States. It's shameless and  immoral, but as the Haitian
proverb goes, "The constitution is paper. Guns  are steel."

So now the phone company and the electric company that are publicly
owned  and which Aristide refused to privatize (angering the international
banking  set) are on the auction block, prepped by US consultants earning
$200,000 a  year of our hard earned tax dollars, as the Haitian poor are
systematically  starved to death.  Soon the puppet president will meet the
IMF and money  that has been held back for the past 3 years will start to
flow again - one  more effort to convince the people of Aristide's failures
and the largesse  of the new government.

The big debate here among Lavalas supporters is whether or not
to  participate in new elections. Wealthier supporters seem open to it,
under  certain conditions, primarily the guarantee of safety for
participants  (which seems like a pipe dream given the conditions reported
above.) The  base is saying a resounding NO - Aristide is the only
legitimate president  and they won't vote for anyone else. Also some folks
in hiding told Lyn  they had voted twice and look what happened. Why should
they risk  themselves again.

Charlie