21863: Esser: Re: 21853: Woelson: Re: 21832: Esser: So Anne Update from local reporter in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Sò Anne is a "known Lavalas criminal"? By which legal standard is
that? Criminal because she is for Lavalas, or criminal because the
occupiers said so? I believe even in Haiti there's such a concept as
innocent until proven guilty. And even if she is guilty of crimes,
by what standard is it normal and legal behavior to handcuff small
children, kill dogs or arrest entire families and needlessly destroy
property and put hoods on the arrestees? Or consider who carried out
the arrest and with what amount of brutality. I think we are dealing
here, among other issues, with institutionalized contempt for the
occupied peoples, as is also evidenced by the treatment of prisoners
of war in Iraq and elsewhere and the deliberate attempt to destroy
any movement that is supported by the people. They, La Tortue as well
as the occupiers, seem to believe that neither Lavalas, nor what
Jean-Bertrand Aristide stood for, will be easily defeated at the
ballot box without resorting to such crude tactics of the U.S.
forces. Just as the torture of prisoners in Iraq has backfired,
this process underway in Haiti is liable to do the same. Haitians in
foreign countries as well as in Haiti have not shown any mass support
for the de facto regime, but instead continue to turn out for
pro-democracy, pro-Aristide and pro-Lavalas rallies. .