22833: Esser: Haitian Lawyers Leadership speaks out on Ron Daniel's Cruising Into Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

August 1, 2004

Haitian Lawyers Leadership speaks out on Ron Daniel's Cruising Into
Haiti

Ron Daniel's Cruising Into Haiti should not be allowed to be used by
the Latortue Regime as "evidence" of the legitimacy of their
unconstitutional rule nor as pretext to further oppressed and
brutalized the Haitian people struggling to regain their independence
and sovereignty.

******

On July 27, 2004, at the Haiti Forum "teach-in" Press Conference
during the DNC in Boston, sponsored by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership
Network, Haitian pro-democracy advocates and activists, met with Rep.
John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and discussed Haiti after the Coup D'etat.
In particular, the endorsement by Rep Conyers and others of Ron
Daniel's cruising into Haiti scheduled to land in Cap Haitien during
part of the sacred eight days between the August 14th Bwa Kayiman
ceremony and August 22, the date marking the 213th anniversary of the
beginning of the Haitian Revolution.

Pro-democracy and anti-rule-by-force, death squads and
foreign-troops'-Haitians at the Forum expressed concerns about the
mission of the Ron Daniel's cruise , to celebrate Haiti's
independence when the Haitian people are today not free and an
un-elected government is in control with foreign troop support and
former FRAPH , convicted felons, drug dealers, rapists and ex-Haitian
military self-appointing themselves judge, jury and executioner of
Haitian law and justice in contravention to the will of the peaceful
masses in Haiti.

In view of the Haitian people's current struggle to break free from
these oppressive powers and regain their independence, Bwa Kayiman
this August, has, once again, become a rallying point for Haitian
freedom fighters and their friends throughout Haiti and abroad. Thus,
the intended Cruising-into-Haiti, sponsored by Ron Daniel's Haiti
Support Project, cannot simply ignore and not acknowledge that
Haiti's current government is illegitimate and imposed on the people
through outside forces working through the democratic divisions
within Lavalas (mostly through covert alliances with disaffected
Lavalas) and primarily with the morally repugnant but few Haitian
economic elites through a Coup d'etat carried out by convicted
felons, ex-FRAPH and Haitian military and other well-known Haitian
human rights abusers and assassins.

Group 184, Guy Philippe, the U.S./France-installed Latortue regime
and, in particular, Frandly Denis, Ron Daniel's cruise
representatives in the North of Haiti, do not represent the Haitian
mass electorate, the Haitian Constitution and or the anti-coup
d'etat, anti-violence and pro-democratic and
respect-for-Haitian-sovereignty people of Haiti and abroad. If Ron
Daniel's cruise arrives in Haiti to join and celebrate the Coup
D'etat and its supporters, especially on the anniversary of Bwa
Kayiman and the Haitian Revolution, it defiles Haiti's revolutionary
legacy, disrespects Boukman and the founding fathers and mothers of
Haiti while reinforcing the Haitian people's current oppression and
shall be denounced both in Haiti and abroad by freedom loving people
worldwide.

It is in the interest of the cruise organizers, the Haitian people
and cruise endorsers not to allow this unconstitutional Latortue
government to kidnap their agenda to learn more about Haiti and its
long struggle for justice, sovereignty and democracy. There is no
doubt that the current 2004 Haitian people's struggle against former
colonists and slave holders, their installed Latortue dictatorship
and their Haitian economic elites, and U.S.-supported ex-Haitian army
officials, death squad leaders and mercenaries, is a continuation of
the Haitian Revolution.