22028: Esser: Marines arrest Haitian folksinger (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

New York Newsday
http://www.newsday.com

May 23, 2004

Marines arrest Haitian folksinger
By Ron Howell
Staff Writer


A popular folk singer who lived for more than 20 years in Brooklyn
has been arrested in Haiti by U.S. marines who accuse her of plotting
against American troops there.

But relatives of the woman, Annette Auguste, known professionally as
So Anne, say she did noting unlawful and they accuse Marines of using
grossly excessive force -- including her two pet dogs and arresting
and handcuffing her five-year-old grandson.

"It seemed like they were going after Osama bin Laden or something,"
said her son Reginald Auguste, who lives in the Flatbush section of
Brooklyn.

In fact -- in what at first blush seems like an odd accusation in
Haiti -- U.S. Marines are alleging that Auguste may have met with
local Muslims to organize attacks on U.S. and other international
forces in the country.

"I can't specifically get into intelligence information that we have
about activities that she and others were involved in . . . but a
mosque is at least mentioned in some of these activities," said
Marine Lt. Col. Dave Lapan.

Lapan also confirmed the family's account that Marines used explosive
devices to break down gates to Auguste's home and that 11 people were
arrested, but he denied that several children were handcuffed along
with the adults.

He also said that, as far as he knew, Marines killed one dog, not two.

Within hours after they were taken to a Marine base in
Port-au-Prince, everyone was released but Auguste, whose nickname So
Anne means Sister Anne in Creole.

U.S. Marines turned So Anne over to Haiti's U.S.-backed interim
government, which alleges she paid supporters of exiled President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide to attack demonstrators at a large
anti-Aristide protest in December.

One of those arrested with Auguste on May 10 was Raymonde Auguste,
her older sister, who is a U.S. citizen, her son said in Brooklyn
last week.

Raymonde Auguste worked at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn for more
than 20 years before retiring and returning to Haiti several years
ago, said her son Claude Luly.

So Anne left her home in Brooklyn and went back to Haiti ten years
ago, after the return to power of Aristide, who had been ousted in a
coup several years before.

So Anne's ties to Aristide are at the heart of the allegations
against her. So Anne, in addition to being a folk singer, is a voodoo
priest with a large following among poor Haitians in New York and in
Haiti.

When she lived in East Flatbush in the early 1990s, she would sing
songs at massive gatherings supporting the return of Aristide to
power. She once entertained 25,000 Haitians with a backup band of
traditional drummers and guitarists on Central Park's Great Lawn.

After U.S. troops dispatched by President Bill Clinton restored
Aristide to power in the fall of 1994, So Anne went back and became
an unofficial liaison between Aristide's Lavalas Party and the poor
and working-class people of Port-au-Prince.

Aristide's critics have accused So Anne and others of using
strong-arm tactics against political opponents, and of using their
influence to get rich.

Haitian critics have written articles saying So Anne was Aristide's
person mambo, or voodoo priestess, and that she used "black magic" to
convince poor Haitians she could harm Aristide's political opponents.

So Anne's relatives say she was in fact a mambo but argued that she
used her status to cure and otherwise help her supplicants.

"In America, they believe that voodoo is evil, but in Haiti half the
population practices voodoo," said her son Reginald, 28, who said he
lives in a basement apartment in Flatbush and organizes pay-to-attend
parties to earn a living.

Her nephew Claude, 30, who lives in Canarsie and is a collecting
agent with the city Transit Authority, said he is angry about the way
Marines treated his relatives. They will seek damages from the U.S.
government, he said.

According to So Anne's companion in Haiti, Wilfrid (cq) Lavaud, the
singer currently has two circulating albums, "Katye Morin," about the
women of a village in Haiti, and "Gade Yon Zetwal," about star-gazing.

Lavaud, who was arrested with So Anne but released, said the
arresting marines seemed to believe the singer was involved with
local Muslims.

"They said she used to meet with the Muslims to plan something
against them [the Americans]," Lavaud said.

He denied there was any such connection. "She never had any
relationship with them at all, and they didn't have any relationship
with her," Lavaud said.

Relatives said Marines killed two of So Anne's dogs, Ramram, a
female, and Party Cool.

One of the explosive devices used to breach the gates of the house
just after midnight on May 10, blew the head off Party Cool, Lavaud
said. Lavaud also said that a five-year-old grandson of So Anne's,
Anel Shameer Samedy, was handcuffed for six hours before he was
released around 6 a.m.

Aristide went into exile on Feb. 29, signing a letter of resignation
under pressure from U.S. diplomats. A U.S.-backed interim government
is running the country pending elections. Many of Aristide's
supporters have gone into hiding.

Aristide had left-wing political tendencies and for years was opposed
by the United States and the upper-classes in Haiti. As poverty
worsened in the country, the opposition against him became more
widespread.

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
.