21928: erzilidanto: MIF and NCHR Statement on arrest of So Anne/HLL Urgent Action reiterated (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Erzilidanto@aol.com

Statement made by the  Multinational Interim Force spokesperson in Haiti on
Monday, May 10, 2004.  of last
 week:

"Last night, at approximately  midnight, forces from the MIFH, in
conjunction with the Haitian National Police,  conducted an operation to
detain Annette Auguste, AKA So Ann, for questioning  about activities that
threaten MIF forces and stability and security in  Haiti.
So Ann is also wanted by  Haitian authorities and has been turned
over the HNP.

During the operation, eleven people were detained temporarily and then
released.

There were no injuries to Haitians or MIFH  personnel."
*****

Statement being circulated by NCHR

<<< www.nchrhaiti.org >>>





Arrest of Annette Auguste (alias SòAnne)

Statement of Vilès Alizar, Program Director of NCHR





While saluting the legal arrest of Annette Auguste, NCHR criticizes and

denounces the use of excessive force with which the arrest was carried

out.  For sometime, a warrant has been issued against SòAnne for her

implication in the violent attacks of 5 December 2003 on students and

faculty at the Humanities Faculty and INAGHEI.



SòAnne has also been accused, by OP Lavalas leaders themselves, of

having participated and organized numerous criminal acts, including the

alleged 2001 human sacrifice of a baby taken from the General Hospital.

One Lavalas gang leader has gone so far as to implicate SòAnne in the

murder of Jean Dominique.  Thus, it is clear that the Haitian judicial

system, particularly the Investigating Magistrate in this case, has a

difficult and task-laden road ahead.



An NCHR delegation visited SòAnne at the National Penitentiary on Mondy,

10 May 2004 and found her to be in good spirits, despite the situation.

She claims that her house was ransacked and possessions destroyed during

the operation leading to her arrest – claims that NCHR is currently

investigating.



The manner in which SòAnne was arrested is clearly unacceptable,

however, what is also unacceptable is to claim that SòAnne’s hands are

clean.



SòAnne is scheduled to appear before the Investigating Magistrate

tomorrow, 13 May 2004.   NCHR will continue to closely follow the

developments in this case.



 National Coalition for Haitian Rights  (NCHR)

Coalition National pour les Droits des Haïtiens

9, Rue Rivière

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Tel:  509.245.3486 / 245.5821

Fax:  509.244.4146

Email:  nchr@nchrhaiti.org

           nchr@haiti.maf.net

www.nchrhaiti.org



Ful story only at: Blackcommentator.com and San Francisco Bayview:

http://www.sfbayview.com/051204/soanne051204.shtml

 
****

HAITIAN LAWYERS LEADERSHIP
URGENT ACTION ALERT (MAY 10, 2004)

ZAP the U.S. Embassy and State Department
[State Department contact information follows below]

Demand the immediate release of Annette Auguste (So Anne)

Haitian singer and activist arrested on Mother's Day

United States Marines have arrested Annette Auguste (So Anne), a prominent
Haitian singer and humanitarian activist. A sizeable contingent of marines
attacked So Anne's home in Port-Au-Prince, where she was recuperating from stomach
surgery. They detained eleven friends and family, who were handcuffed, hooded
with black plastic bags and taken away, including four young children (ages
five, seven, twelve and fourteen years old). The military ransacked the house,
handcuffed and hooded even the five year old. The U.S. Marines apparently still
hold So Anne incommunicado. [Read below for a more detailed narrative.]

What is So Anne's crime: Organizing nutritional programs, serving food to the
homeless, presenting cultural programs, and supporting Lavalas (along with
the majority of the Haitian people) to name a few. Thousands of Haitians have
already been killed since the coup d'etat on February 29, 2004 for similar
crimes. Thousands more are in hiding. We must fight back on their behalf.

Protest this illegal and immoral action by the United States Marines! Demand
So Anne's immediate release! Your calls, faxes and e-mails will make a
difference to keep So Anne alive, to deter brutal treatment and to expedite her
release.

Please contact Ambassador James Foley directly at the U.S. Embassy in
Port-au-Prince. Call on Secretary of State Colin Powell at the U.S. State Department
in Washington, and contact your Senators and Representatives. Call early and
call often.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Ambassador James B. Foley
U.S. Embassy, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
phone: 509.223.7011 or 509.222.0200
fax: 509.223.9665
email: acspap@state.gov

http://usembassy.state.gov (for address and additional phones)

Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State
fax: 202.647.2283 or 202.647.5169
phone: 202.647.5291 or 202.647.7098
email via: http://contact-us.state.gov/ask_form_cat/ask_form_secretary.html

Haiti Desk Officers, U.S. State Department:

Joseph Tilghman
fax: 202.647.2901
phone: 202.647.5088
email: tilghmanjf@state.gov

Lawrence Connell
fax: 202.647.2901
phone: 202.647.6765
email: ConnellLF@state.gov

NARRATIVE

On or about 12:30 on May 10, 2004, the U.S. military, acting as the
Multinational Interim Force (MIF) in Haiti violently gained entrance to the home of
Annette Auguste, aka "So Anne."

No Haitian police were present at the time of the forcible entry, at the time
of interrogations or during the arrests. The U.S. soldiers are said to have
blown up the gate where So Anne was living and accused her of making threats
against the MIF.

Freedom of speech, assembly and protection of property are no longer civil
rights for Haitians, especially for Lavalas progressives. In fact, it appears
Haitian law and Constitution means less than nothing unless U.S. authorities
need a pretext to give legitimacy to Justice Boniface and Latorture as the puppet
replacement heads for foreign rule and dictatorship in Haiti.

At a press briefing on May 10, 2004, MIF CJTF Public Affairs officer Col.
David Lapan reportedly said, in sum, when asked why such force was used to make
this arrest, that in operations of this type it is necessary to use violence in
order to show the individuals who are the objects of the operation that the
MIF means business. Haitians who had any doubt as to the current status of
Haitian sovereignty need no longer ask. The U.S. military, through Colonel David
Lapan, have clearly implied that Haiti is under occupation, and wartime rules
known only to U.S. officers. Although the curfew imposed on February 29, 2004
by the MIF has been lifted. By this action of May 10, 2004, it is reasonable to
say, Haiti is under U.S. martial law while Ambassador Foley puts every word
that comes out of U.S. puppet head, Mr. Latorture's month.

Annette Auguste is an elderly Haitian woman recovering from recent surgery.
She is a well-known artist, a political and cultural activist, a mother and
grandmother, whose life has been dedicated to the Lavalas Movement for democracy
and development in Haiti. As a well-respected Haitian elder and community
leader, her house is a meeting ground, as is the normal Haitian custom, for people
to come and eat, gather, share news and solidarity. The Haitian Constitution
guarantees Haitian citizens the right, not to be arrested or terrorized
without due cause, especially it outlines no arrest warrants may be excised between
6pm and 6 am at night.

Yet, last night, a strong contingent of U.S. soldiers, from the Multinational
Interim Force in Haiti apparently decided to forego Haitian and international
law and practice warfare games on this elderly grandmother's unarmed
household.

Instead of knocking at the door, providing proof of charges and making a
legal arrest at a reasonable and Constitutionally approved hour for arrests, the
U.S. soldiers, armed with the world's most sophisticated war instruments, threw
a grenade and blew up this elderly Haitian woman's gates and forcibly entered
her home.

All the people in her house, some 11 people, including her tiny 5-year old
grandson, Shashou, where forced to the ground and were handcuffed by U.S.
soldiers armed in heavy artillery.

Let's reiterate - Shashou, a defenseless 5-year old Haitian baby boy,
handcuffed and hooded by the world's most powerful soldiers at midnight in his own
grandmother's home!

This is the sort of "law and order" and democracy Haitians are subjected to
after their Constitutionally-elected President was, himself, forced out of
Haiti by U.S. and French soldiers at gunpoint.

This is the sort of "law," "order," and better "democracy" the Bush
Administration is bringing to the world, while Secretary of State, Colin Powell praises
Latorture, a man who called cop killers and convicted felons, "freedom
fighters" in Haiti. This is the democracy the Bush Administration, currently hosting
Mr. Latorture's first "official" U.S. visit, has saddled peace-loving
Haitians with. Meanwhile, U.S. authorities, ignoring that most of the local, State
and congressional invitees have declined to attend meetings with the illegal
Latorture, still are blithely forging ahead with their "Regime Change", escorting
the illegitimate U.S. replacement to the Constitutional government, Mr. L
atorture, to shrimp and lobster dinners to places such as the Harvard Club in New
York today.

After, the U.S. soldiers, with grenades, blew up the gates at So Anne's
house, they then shot, with powerful automatic weapons, the hapless defenseless
yard dogs and children pets who were barking in the yard at the rude entry in the
dead of night.

Photos taken of So Anne's house show that a lot of damage was done. Also from
news reports, the U.S. admitted, through Col. Lapan at the press conference,
that there was no evidence of any weapons at So Anne's house. Thus, the use of
such excessive force and the hour of the operation is rendered even more
illegal and clearly a blatant violation of the Haitian Constitutional, Haitian
sovereignty and international treaties, not to mention the OAS and UN charters.

Moreover, in the context of the U.S. citizenry's current concerns over
treatment of individuals in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay,
this May 10, 2004, excessive force and handcuffing, terrorizing, at past midnight
of Haitian civilians, who where then not accused of any crime is especially
egregious.

All 11 people at So Anne's house where transported to the U.S. barracks at
the Medical University the U.S. shut down upon arriving in Haiti, a country
without doctors, and interrogated. None where charged. No apologies given. They
were release, except that Lavalas militant, So Anne, was then delivered, after
U.S. interrogation, to the Haitian National Penitentiary. No official charges
have been cited. Presumably, the Interim Multinational Force has the authority,
by virtual of what law? to use military force against a Haitian citizen,
without warrant, without even the presence of Haitian authorities or any Haitians
whatsoever?

Are we to understand that protecting unarmed Haitian civilians - through
policing, demilitarizing Haiti and arresting convicted mass murderers such as Guy
Philippe and his ex-soldier and FRAPH mercenaries - are "beyond the U.S.
peacekeeping mission."

But, throwing grenades at an unarmed and sickly grandmother's house because
she supports Lavalas and the return of the legitimate President of Haiti -
ransacking and destroying her house; brutally forcing all the occupants to the
ground and handcuffing them, and taking them to U.S. barracks for further
terrorizing after two hours of U.S. "show of force" shock-and-awe at their home -
that, that sort of U.S. military performance is indeed well within the U.S.
"peacekeeping mission" in Haiti?

Haitian children, even 5-year old baby boys in Haiti, need to be handcuffed
by grown U.S. soldiers in the dead of night. The head of their dogs cut off by
a U.S. grenade.

Thus, it is clear, our malnourished and defenseless Haitian children no
longer have to get on overloaded Haitian boats, face shark infested open seas and
reach Miami to be terrorized by U.S. guards.

Now in Haiti itself they don't have sanctuary.

Even more poignant, our Haitian children, don't, in this 200 year of our
ancestor's greatest feat against enslavement and colonialism, have asylum,
justice, sanctuary at their own grandmother's houses on Haitian soil.

This situation is more than illegal. It's barbaric, untenable. It's naked
racism. Haitians are flesh and blood human beings with heart beats, pains,
dreams, desires for beauty and peace.

Why are they so persecuted by the most powerful of peoples? It seems
terrorists, convicted felons responsible for actually murdering innocent people,
including Americans, are treated better by this Administration than innocent
Haitians, who 've never harmed anyone; who merely voted for a leader the Bush
regime, Otto Reich, Roger Noreiga, Luigi Einuiadi and big-business-interests hate
with a deranged, psychotic passion. And dare we quote President Bush in
reference to a statement made about the U.S. soldier's torture of Iraqi prisoners in
U.S. custody, and say that the handcuffing and arrest of 5-year old baby-boy
Shashou at midnight on May 10, 2004; even the killing of defenseless pets in the
yard of a grandmother in Haiti awaken by U.S. grenades, not too mention the
arrest of So Anne and her entire household, one of Haiti's most tireless
pro-democracy activists, is simply too naked and revolting a lawlessness; and, for
those who still believe in the untainted goodness of the U.S. government: it's
simply "un-American" to borrow that recent phrase used by President George W.
Bush.

It is reported this U.S. orchestrated show of force is to further pressure,
intimidate and otherwise stop other such Lavalas activists requesting the
return of laws and democracy to Haiti from holding a demonstration intended for May
18, 2004, Haiti's flag day.

*
More than 3,000 Haitians, mostly young Haitian men associated or rumored to
be associated with the Lavalas party have been killed in Haiti since the U.S.
deposed President Aristide itself on February 29, 2004. In a bare two months,
this bloodbath and killing of 3,000 Haitians represents more than half the
number of Haitians that were killed during the entire three years of the first
Coup D'etat against the Haitian people. More than 3,000 defenseless Haitians have
been killed since U.S. soldiers landed in Haiti for this 2nd Coup d'etat
against Haitian development and democracy. Yet, the reason given by Secretary of
State, Colin Powell for the MIF and forcing out of President Aristide was "to
avoid a bloodbath."

According to current reports, as of April 26, 2004 - less than two months
after U.S. and French soldiers forced Haiti's Constitutionally elected President
unto a U.S. aircraft - this Bush Administration's illegal interdiction policy
towards Haitian asylum seekers has resulted in Washington returning 1,948
Haitians to Haiti in 2004, already an increase, according to the U.S. Coast Guard,
over the 1,490 intercepted at sea for the entire 2003 year. And yet, the
State Department's propaganda to destabilize the Constitutional government, had
promised the Haitian people a better human rights record than that of the
previous two Lavalas voted-in governments?

There is now a strong dossier of the 14-year destabilization campaign against
Haitian democracy and development by the powerful Western Nations, led by the
U.S. The violent arrest of So Anne, her 5-year old grandson and 10 other
people at her house at midnight on May 10, 2004 and similar brutal conduct by the
U.S. military against Lavalas -- the party whom State Department propaganda
insisted, before the Coup D'Etat, no longer supported President Aristide is too
blatant to need deeper investigation.

*****

The U.S. Marines did not leave So Anne's house until around 2 or 2:30 a.m. on
May 10, 2004. The house of this well-known Haitian woman and Lavalas
activists was brutally ransacked and all the occupants, including, as we have noted
above, small children as young as 5-years old, where taken in custody, in the
dead of night and transported to the Medical University at Tabarre. Some of the
detainees report they were interrogated about their role under the
Constitutional government, including questioned regarding whether they knew "Danny
Toussaint was a drug trafficker?" and what where they planning at the house so late
at night, et.

It is reported, by some of these detainees, that excessive force was used in
putting them into custody. They had no warning and some still are trembling
from the encounter and that they were terrorized during the interrogations by
U.S. soldiers. No one can say how this newest trauma will damage the children
involved, not to mentioned the adults, who were already managing the U.S./France
metered out Coup D'etat's post traumatic stress syndrome. Imagine waking up
and all that you have worked for your entire life has been trashed and defiled
while the duly elected President is kidnapped to parts unknown. The trauma is
tremendous for the majority of Haitians who do not support dictatorship and
wanted to move from elections to elections, not from Coup d'etat to dictatorship
and the rule of the old, status-quo Duvalieriest and their FRAPH and Haitian
army soldiers.

No charges where pressed against any of the twelve Haitian detainees taken
from So Anne's house. Except that So Anne was arrested and transferred to the
National Penitentiary after having been interrogated all night. Just as with the
forced removal of President Aristide and his wife, this operations was
conducted without any Haitian present other than the foreign soldiers.

Although, the MIF reportedly transferred So Anne to the custody of the PNH
without charging her with any crime. It has been reported, after the arrest, and
before any formal charges have been brought that NCHR - a human rights
organization with strong ties to USAID, the U.S. Embassy, the right wing Haiti
Democracy Project and the opposition to President Aristide and the Lavalas party-
has accused So Anne of "some connection" to the December 5th violent incidents
at the University. However, these innuendoes are not supported by NCHR by any
facts as of yet, nor does it have the authority to press its witch-hunt
campaign against Lavalas supporters.

Moreover, other Haitian popular organizational leaders, currently in hiding
for fear of similar U.S. reprisals, have opined that they suspect this arrest
is a pretext to prevent So Anne from taking part in a demonstration demanding
the return of the rule of law and President Aristide planned for May 18, 2004 -
Haiti's Flag Day.

So Ann is an elderly woman (69 years old) on medication and has yet to be
charged or to see a judge in accordance with the 48 hour rule under the 1987
Haitian Constitution. This is an urgent call to action. Please contact the State
Department, Defense Secretary Colin Powell, your local congressperson and
representatives, the Congressional Black Caucus and media, to denounce the arrest
of So Anne; the systematic terror campaign against Lavalas demonstrators, and
the treatment of Haitians, like So Anne, and especially the manacling and
hooding of her 5-year old grandson, Shashou and other grandchildren, by U.S.
command with the Multinational Interim Force in Haiti.

Marguerite Laurent, JD,

Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
(dedicated to protecting the civil, human and cultural rights of Haitians at
home and abroad)
May 10, 2004
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html