21902: Esser: The Murder of Cassey Auguste (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

ZNet
http://www.zmag.org

May 15, 2004

The Murder of Cassey Auguste
by Justin Felux

Cassey Auguste was a twenty-year-old American citizen. His mother had
moved back to her home country of Haiti after working for paltry
wages for over twenty years in the United States. Her dream was to
run a successful family business in the country that she loves. That
dream came to a crashing halt on the morning of March 3rd when her
son, who had come to Haiti to help her, was gunned down in cold blood
and had his mutilated body dumped over a ravine by men who were
members of U.S.-supported death squads. Will the White House vow to
bring Auguste's killers to justice, just as it has vowed to bring
those who beheaded Nick Berg in Iraq to justice?

According to his sister, Natasha Michaud, Cassey and a friend were
sitting outside his mother's business in Pont Sonde when four cars
full of armed men showed up. Casey immediately put up his hands and
said, "I am an American. I have nothing to do with politics." His
father rushed inside to retrieve Cassey's passport, hoping that proof
of Cassey's American citizenship would dissuade the men from causing
any harm. By that time it was too late. Cassey and his friend were
mowed down by machine guns while his mother's cries for mercy fell on
deaf ears. When the family eventually found the bodies they didn't
give them a proper burial, saying they "feared that these people may
find out about the funeral and do some more damage to our lives."

The reason for this atrocity? The killers alleged that the family
used to serve Lavalas at their business. Their hatred of the
political party of deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide indicates
that these men are likely members of the so-called "rebels" that
overran the country under the leadership of Guy Philippe. Michaud
said the men "had something like a gun that shot out water and
cleaned the blood." That makes sense. If pictures of bodies and pools
of blood started showing up in the news it might cause an outrage. Is
this what the New York Times was referring to when they noted the
"media savvy" of Guy Philippe and his thugs?

Marguerite Laurent of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network has
written to U.S. Ambassador James Foley requesting an investigation in
to the incident. Thus far, it has received no media coverage. If the
major media's coverage of Haiti thus far is any indication, Cassey's
murder will go virtually unnoticed. He is not by any means alone. The
"rebel" forces, with the active support of the Bush administration,
have unleashed a campaign of terror on the Haitian people,
particularly supporters of Lavalas. Some estimates have the body
count as high as 3,000. One report from the National Lawyer's Guild
found that over a thousand bodies were dumped in a mass grave by the
state morgue in March, which is more than ten times the usual number
of bodies.

None of this has received any coverage in the mainstream media.
Compare their utter silence on the wholesale massacres currently
being carried out to the widespread coverage given to the rare
attacks against Aristide's detractors. A few days after Cassey's
murder the former opposition to President Aristide held a rally
celebrating the coup. Five of the demonstrators were shot by alleged
Aristide militants. The New York Times put the story on the front
page and devoted over a thousand words worth of column space,
complete with grizzly descriptions of the dead bodies and victims'
wounds.

Cassey probably also won't be helped by the fact that he is black.
While the media is quick to respond with tons of coverage and outrage
when something bad happens to a white American, they tend to be less
enthusiastic when the shoe is on the darker foot. For example, in
2002 the national media gave heavy coverage to the kidnapping of
Elizabeth Smart while paying scant attention to Alexis Patterson, a
young black girl who was also missing at the same time.

The so-called "progressive" media is also guilty in this regard.
Rachel Corrie, an activist for the International Solidarity Movement,
was brutally crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza last year. Her
death justifiably sparked outrage and activism that even caught the
attention of Congress. On the other hand, hardly anyone knows about
Suraida Saleh. Saleh, like Corrie, was a young woman, an American
citizen, and was brutally killed by the IDF. She was shot in the face
and chest while holding her 9-month-old baby in her lap. Where was
the outrage over her murder? Could it be that activists thought they
could get more political mileage out of the killing of a girl named
Rachel than they could out of the killing of a girl named Suraida?

One has to wonder whether or not Cassey Auguste's murder would not
already be front page news if he were an American citizen of the
lighter-skinned variety. At any rate, if the story his family tells
is true, it deserves to be investigated and the perpetrators should
be brought to justice. It's the least this government could do after
arming, training, and giving a wink and a nod to the thugs who
viciously robbed him and his family of their future together.

Justin Felux is a writer and activist based in San Antonio, Texas. He
can be contacted at justins@alacrityisp.net