21842: This Week in Haiti 22:9 05/12/2004 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        May 12 - 18, 2004
                          Vol. 22, No. 9

MIDNIGHT RAID BY U.S. TROOPS PROVOKES OUTRAGE

An explosion tore open the gates on the home of Annette "So Anne"
Auguste in the early morning of May 10, and dozens of heavily
armed U.S. Marines charged in. Members of the household,
including Auguste's five year old granddaughter, were thrown to
the floor, flexicuffed, and hauled off to U.S. military
headquarters for questioning.

The attack has shocked and incensed Haitians, not only in Haiti,
but throughout its diaspora, where Auguste, 60, was a well-known
anti-dictatorship singer before returning to Haiti in 1994 to
become a popular leader in President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
Lavalas Family party.

"They went from room to room throwing grenades," explained
Wilfrid "Tido" Lavaud, So Anne's guitarist and long-time
companion. "They shot open all the doors they passed through.
They terrorized the entire neighborhood."

Two of Lavaud's daughters, Winifred, 25, and Linedossa, 13,
escaped over a wall into the yard of a neighbor with Auguste's
younger brother, Andrél Elie. Linedossa seriously cut her leg in
the escape.

Along with So Anne and Tido, U.S. Marines arrested nine other
household members including Auguste's sister, Raymonde Altagrace,
68, and son Ralph Samedi and his wife Beatrice Fortuné. The
Marines also arrested Auguste's 5-year-old granddaughter, Shameer
Samedi, and two grandsons, Lucmar and Louvaïmar Auguste, aged 15
and 12. Also arrested was Kelande Philippe, 12, Auguste's adopted
son. A cook and driver were also detained.

The arrests were made in violation of the Haitian Constitution,
which says that all arrests should be made between 6 a.m. and 6
p.m. except when a crime is being committed.

All remained handcuffed for six hours during questioning, Tido
reports. Then they were released, without explanation, except for
So Anne. She was supposed to be charged on May 11, but the judge
never showed up. She is being held in the National Penitentiary.

"It seems they want to charge her as the person responsible for
the events of Dec. 5 at the University of Haiti," Tido said. That
was the date when popular organizations and students skirmished,
and the school's rector had his knees broken.

Auguste's family has been in touch with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
and intend to pursue legal action.

U.S. interrogators, who questioned all the detainees separately,
were also concerned that Auguste had contact with Haitian Muslims
who worship at a mosque less than a block from her home on Delmas
16 in Port-au-Prince, Tido said. "The interrogators thought that
she was having meetings with them to hatch a plot to attack U.S.
troops," he said. "So they thought So Anne was a threat to their
security."

The U.S. interrogators also asked the detained if they had spoken
by phone with President Aristide, now exiled in Jamaica, and if
he was giving them directives.

Since last August, So Anne has been in a recording studio with
her singing group called "Koral la" (The Chorale) recording over
70 songs. The artists took a break in late January to allow
Carnaval artists to record their music.

Auguste also had an operation on Feb. 1 at the Canapé Vert
hospital to remove four fibrous tumors. Her doctor told her to
rest for three months after the operation.

"Here is a woman who has been in a recording studio and
recuperating from surgery for the past six months, and the U.S.
authorities are accusing her of plotting all kinds of things,"
Tido said. "It's really absurd."

Ralph Samedi also ridiculed the charge that his mother had been
fomenting hostility against U.S. troops, although she is well
within her legal rights to do so. "If my mother made threats
against the multinational force, the accusers would have to say
on which radio stations, which television channels she made the
statements," he said.

MIAMI & NEW YORK:
DEMONSTRATORS HOUND LATORTUE

Some 300 Haitians demonstrated outside city hall in North Miami
to denounce de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue's visit there
May 7. The city's Republican mayor Joe Celestin invited Latortue
along with U.S. Ambassador to Haiti James Foley to speak at a
fundraising event for the Smithsonian Institute's "Folklife
Festival" for Haiti to be held next month on the Capitol Mall in
Washington, D.C. Speaking on behalf of the Smithsonian was Geri
Benoit, Haiti's first lady from 1996 to 2000 when she was married
to President René Préval.

The reception was attended by about 100 Haitian businessmen,
current and aspiring politicians, and committees like the
"Haitians for Bush Coalition," headed by Sidney Charles. He
argued that President Aristide deserved to be pushed from power
on Feb. 29 because he had not observed "democratic rules" and had
established "one-man   not even one party   rule."

In the two months since Aristide was put on a plane leaving Haiti
by U.S. Marines, food prices have doubled, garbage has not been
collected, and electricity and telephone service are all but non-
existent. Ambassador Foley blamed these problems on Aristide's
government saying that it had left Latortue's de facto government
with no funds. "It is above all the responsibility of the former
government which took everything and spent everything, leaving
the treasury bare," Foley said.

But outside the hall, the demonstrators denounced Latortue, Foley
and Mayor Celestin as coup-makers and kidnappers. Lavarice Gaudin
of the Veye Yo popular organization said that "we are outraged
that a former Duvalierist like Joe Celestin can invite the leader
of a coup government here to Miami. We will not stand for it and
we will continue our mobilization until the elected government is
restored to Haiti."

Meanwhile, in New York, some 40 demonstrators picketed the
Harvard Club in Manhattan where Latortue gave a speech on the
afternoon of May 10. They then marched to the newly moved Haitian
Consulate on East 66th Street and picketed Latortue when he
visited there later that day.

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Please credit Haiti Progres.

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