22240" This Week in Haiti 22:12 06/02/2004 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        June 2 - 9, 2004
                         Vol. 22, No. 12

ARISTIDE LEAVES JAMAICA FOR SOUTH AFRICA:
"THERE IS ONLY ONE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF HAITI"
by Kim Ives

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide broke his silence of the
last twelve weeks when he declared that he alone is Haiti's
president in a May 30 press conference in Kingston, Jamaica just
before boarding a jet bound for South Africa. "It will now be our
temporary home, until we are back in Haiti," he said.

The 45-minute press conference was held on the 17th floor of the
posh Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, where President Aristide and his
wife, Mildred, arrived at about 10:45 p.m., after meeting with
Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson. Sharing the podium with
the Aristides were Minister of State of Foreign Affairs and
Foreign Trade, Delano Franklyn and South Africa's Ambassador to
the Caricom states and Haiti, Thanduyise Henry Chiliza. U.S.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters and her husband, former U.S.
Ambassador to the Bahamas Sydney Williams, were also on hand, as
was the Aristide government's lawyer, Ira Kurzban,.

Aristide received the red-carpet treatment of a head of state
when he landed in Johannesburg on May 31 and was received by
South African President Thabo Mbeki and numerous other African
diplomats. The 53-nation Organization of African Unity, like the
Caricom nations, still recognize Aristide as Haiti's legitimate
president and have shunned the Washington-installed de facto
government of Alexandre Boniface and Gérard Latortue.

Aristide opened the press conference with a statement in which he
said that "the Haitian situation must be normalized" and that
"peace must be restored through democratic order."

He then fielded questions from journalists, most of whom were
from the Jamaican press. The BBC also covered the event, as did
the Miami Herald. However, North American behemoths like CNN,
which covered Aristide's last press conference March 8 in the
difficult to reach city of Bangui, Central African Republic, were
not on hand. Other than Haïti Progrès, the Haitian media was also
absent.

Aristide made clear that he is still the president of Haiti.
"There is one elected president of Haiti," he said. "There is no
two."

"What we have in Haiti today may remind us of what we have in
Iraq," Aristide said in a clear poke at Washington's military
occupation of the country. "The issue is you have pictures from
Iraq and you may not have from Haiti, but when you compare these
two countries you feel shocked and you suffer with those
suffering... What we have in Haiti today is very bad."

A journalist asked if things were not also bad under Aristide's
rule. "It's day and night when you compare what you have today in
Haiti, to what you had when I was in Haiti," he responded. "How
can you have well-known drug dealers like Guy Philippe, people
already convicted by justice like Chamblain, becoming a judge,
sitting around a table judging people, and a so-called government
calling them freedom fighters?"

Aristide said that if the UN was really interested in justice
"then convicted people would be arrested instead of seeing them
arresting innocent people. Drug dealers would be in jail."

Aristide asserted several times throughout the press conference
that he was not only in touch with people in Haiti, but that he
was "always in deep communion with the Haitian people," meaning
that "when they are suffering, I suffer too." He highlighted
repeatedly the arrest of singer and Lavalas militant Annette "So
Ann" Auguste along with Shashou, her five year old grandson, and
other children in her household (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 22, No.
9, May 12, 2004).
Asked about the arrangement he had with South Africa and whether
he would now be able to talk and travel freely, Aristide
responded: "I may give more details from South Africa later, but
not now." He was also asked if he would now be able to give
details about his Feb. 29 "coup-napping." "Please be patient," he
replied with a laugh. "The book is almost ready and will bring
the full answers: what happened, how it happened and so on. Be
patient."

Asked how he was supporting his family now, Aristide said: "We
didn't know we were leaving Haiti on February 29, so we left
Haiti without money," promising journalist that "you will find
more in the book." For his stay in Jamaica he said that "we were
fortunate to have a government here helping us as we are
fortunate to have the government of South Africa sending a
plane," an Air Force jet. "From [South Africa] I will be able to
tell you more," he said adding "once again we want to say thanks
to all those who made it possible."

He bristled when asked if there was any truth to the allegations
that he was involved in drug trafficking. "Totally false, totally
false," he said emphatically, asserting that it was "the garbage
and the lies they are spreading" to distract from scandals like
the arrest of So Ann and her grandson. "Compare the situation of
that child to the allegations, the lies, the accusations, which
are false, and you will understand how those using violence lie
in order to try to justify what they cannot justify, by that I
mean what they did on Feb. 29th."

On the contrary, Aristide said he was "proud" of his
accomplishments "fighting against drug dealers."

"We exposed our life when we were in office in Haiti to reduce
the level of drugs coming from Haiti to the United States," he
said. "And at that time, it wasn't me saying that, it was the
U.S. Embassy in Haiti saying that it moved from 15% to 8%. We
signed an agreement with the U.S. government to have them
cooperating with the Haitian government in that struggle against
drugs. We did our best to respect that agreement. And we had our
parliament pass a law to ratify this agreement which was signed
on October 1999. Then they had the possibility to enter Haitian
waters."

"My question is this," he said in conclusion. "When you can see
the boat-people leaving Haiti, how can you tell me you don't see
the boats carrying drugs?"

President Aristide also rejected the notion that the Lavalas
Family party would participate in elections proposed by the de
facto authorities for next year, even in the unlikely event that
the security situation in the nation improved. "How can they be
talking about elections when they don't respect the rights of
someone to say how he feels?" he responded. "For the moment, we
don't want to confuse elections and selections. The coup is also
that: silencing the Haitian people, destroying Lavalas, accusing
Lavalas, in such a way as to have one day selections without the
participation of the Haitian people. We cannot accept that. We
had 33 coup d'états, it's enough. We fought hard   and that's one
of the consequences that we are here   to protect that right to
vote, to protect a constitutional mandate, in order to move from
election to election, not from coup d'état to coup d'état. I know
Haïti Progrès is working for the same goal by telling the truth.
I know many other journalists are doing the same."

Although he did not identify it, Aristide was clearly often
speaking to Washington. "Unfortunately, they never wanted the
Haitian people to vote because they don't consider them as human
beings, as citizens, having the rights," he said in response to
one question "Now they may talk about elections, but are they
ready to have fair, free, and democratic elections? The Haitian
people elected me for 5 years, and they know at the end of those
5 years they will have fair, free, and democratic elections...

"If you don't want the people to talk, you prefer to kill them
and put them in bags and drop them in the sea, as they are doing
right now. They kill them, they put them in bags, and they drop
them in the sea. It's sad to see in 2004 this is what's happening
in Haiti. But this is the reality, this is the truth, and we have
to say the truth."

Mildred Aristide also made some brief remarks at the press
conference, thanking Maxine Waters in particular for her support.

After the press conference, the Aristides were driven in a 10-car
motorcade to Norman Manley International Airport where they
boarded the South African Air Force jet. Flying with them to
South Africa were their two daughters, two security guards,
including Haitian security chief Frantz Gabriel who has been at
Aristide's side since the coup, Minister Franklyn, and two
representatives from Caricom, representing the secretary general
and the chairman.

SO ANN SPEAKS FROM PRISON

Musician and activist Annette "So Ann" Auguste is still jailed
after U.S. Marines attacked her home and arrested her on May 10
(see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 22, No. 9, May 12, 2004). Here is a
recent note she issued from her cell.

Pétionville Penitentiary, Haiti, May 23, 2004

I speak to the world today as a prisoner of conscience in Haiti,
held in detention for my political beliefs and convictions.

I was arrested on May 10 in Delmas, a  suburb of the Haitian
capital of Port-au-Prince, by U.S. Marines who brutally assaulted
my home in the middle of the night with explosives and large
arms, terrorizing all within, especially the small children of my
family. The only security we had was our two small dogs which
they killed immediately upon entering the premises, after using
explosives to blast open the front door of our home. I can never
forget nor forgive the trauma these men have caused the youngest
and most vulnerable of our household. Of the three teenagers and
young adults who escaped arrest that night by jumping over the
balcony, one suffered serious wounds that required urgent medical
treatment. I think none of us will ever be able to forget the
inhuman treatment we were subjected to in the course of this
violent action undertaken in the name of the Bush government for
what he calls "building democracy" in my homeland.

The real truth is that it is the American government who
violently invaded my home and arrested me, and it is only they
who hold the keys to my jail cell. They are pretending to use the
Haitian judicial system to cover this fact. Yet it was only
American soldiers who invaded my home, without an arrest warrant,
and forcibly took me away in chains while the Haitian police sat
passively in their cars outside.

The Bush government's Marines said that they undertook this
violent action against me and my family because I was planning to
attack their forces and undermine security and stability in my
homeland.

How can they be so cynical when they know quite well it was they,
along with the French government, who undermined Haiti's
stability by forcibly removing our constitutional President on
February 29, 2004? How can they be so cynical when they know it
is they who undermined our security by training and unleashing
the forces of the former military and death squads in order to
assist them in overthrowing our constitutional government?

It was only afterwards that the U.S. government manipulated their
puppet Latortue, the de facto Prime Minister, and the Haitian
judicial system to charge me falsely with organizing an attack
against the so-called "student opposition" on December 5th, 2003
during their  "demonstration" against the constitutional
government of Aristide and Lavalas.  I was never involved nor had
any knowledge of the events till after they took place on that
date.  It is clear to me that such an accusation is only a small
act in this shameful theater.

The fact remains that it was the Bush administration and his
military forces in Haiti that arrested me and, once again, it is
only they who hold the keys to my jail cell and can give the
order to free me. Even if paying an unjust bribe to some corrupt
Haitian official or paying a fine ordered by the Haitian
judicial system could secure my release, it would  still have to
be approved at the highest political levels of the Bush
administration.

Throughout my imprisonment, the ceaseless campaign of repression
and assassination against the base of the Lavalas political party
has continued. Militants of our movement who are credible and
well recognized leaders in their neighborhoods are being
assassinated by the new militarized police force under the
control and direction of the so-called MIF, which is in reality
being directed by the U.S. Marines. Leaders of our movement are
still being arrested and others forced into hiding in a concerted
effort to break the back of the Lavalas movement which still sees
Jean-Bertrand Aristide as the only legitimate and
constitutionally elected President of Haiti.

While I have been forced to sit in this jail cell, I have also
seen the cynicism of some within our party, brought about by this
campaign of repression, intimidation and assassination. I
understand their fear as I am myself a victim of this campaign
whose purpose is to destroy our hope and aspirations for building
a Haiti where the poor are not simple tools upon which to build
dreams of personal empire and wealth.

I would remind all those who still consider themselves to
represent Lavalas and the poor majority of Haiti to remember the
lesson of the first occupation of our homeland by the Americans
and our great martyr Charlemagne Péralte.  Péralte made his peace
with the Americans in good faith and disbanded his armed
resistance against the occupation only to fall victim to their
lies and ill intentions: he was kidnapped and assassinated. A
similar fate threatens many Haitians today in Lavalas who believe
in our national sovereignty and justice.

>From my cell, I am given hope by the many voices being raised
against the injustice the people of Haiti are being forced to
suffer today. I am grateful to Congresswoman Maxine Waters and
countless others who have stood up in solidarity with the Haitian
people, in order to stop the bloodletting and help the outside
world to know the truth and reality we are faced with today.

I send you all my love and gratitude for remaining strong in
separating the lies from the truth in Haiti's current situation.
I send you all my blessings as a free Haitian woman fighting for
the rights of the impoverished majority in my homeland.

They may imprison my body but they will never imprison the truth
I know in my soul. I will continue to fight for justice and truth
in Haiti until I draw my last breath.

Annette Auguste
Petion-Ville Penitentiary, Haiti

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.

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