22956: Esser: Activists across US launch week of support for protests in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser <torx@joimail.com>

San Francisco Bay View
http://www.sfbayview.com/081104/weekofsupport081104.shtml

August 12, 2004

Activists across US launch week of support for protests in Haiti

Candlelight march Friday 9pm at Cedar & Bonita, North Berkeley

Beginning a week of non-violent demonstrations in the United States,
representatives of the Bay Area-based Haiti Action Committee today
called for all people of conscience to support the Haitian people’s
ongoing struggle for basic freedoms. The U.S. actions are in support
of peaceful protests being staged under dire conditions in Haiti.

The Haiti demonstrations will be held in the area of Cap-Haitien and
Milot in the North of Haiti Aug. 12-14. That region has seen brutal
crackdowns on the popular mass movement Lavalas by paramilitary
forces. Meanwhile, candlelight vigils, pickets and teach-ins are
planned in various U.S. cities in solidarity with Haiti.

Robert Roth, a San Francisco educator who just returned from visiting
Milot with a human rights delegation to Haiti, said, “The
democratically elected mayor of Milot, Jean-Charles Moise, is now in
hiding after soldiers stormed his home in the middle of the night on
June 14.” Their action violates Haiti’s Constitution, which forbids
late-night raids of this kind.

In 1998, Mayor Moise visited California, where he was received by the
Board of Supervisors of Alameda County and the mayors and City
Council members of Oakland, Berkeley and Davis. These cities
proclaimed a day in Mayor Moise’s honor, recognizing his
extraordinary contribution to the Haitian people’s struggle for
justice and democracy.

A candlelight march to demand an end to the persecution of Mayor
Moise and other Lavalas members and the return of President Aristide
will take place at 9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 13, starting from the
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists at the corner of Cedar
and Bonita in North Berkeley. A public forum, featuring Haitian
community leader Pierre Labossiere and media activist Maria Gilardin,
will precede the vigil at 7 p.m. at the church.

Actions in Cap-Haitien and Milot will include a Caravan of Justice,
in which people will place candles at sites of military attacks on
civilians. This cycle of protest will conclude with a march on Aug.
14, commemorating the beginning of the Haitian Revolution in 1791.
Due to the extreme repression in the region, international human
rights observers will monitor the protests and help insure safety of
participants.

Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee called on U.S.
residents to pressure their congressional representatives to support
H.R. 3919, The Responsibility to Uncover the Truth About Haiti, or
T.R.U.T.H. Act. Introduced by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the bill
calls for an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the
Bush administration’s involvement in the Feb. 29 coup d’état in Haiti.

Background

On Feb. 29, representatives of the Bush administration kidnapped the
democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
and flew him to the Central African Republic. President Aristide now
lives in involuntary exile in South Africa. The Haitian people
overwhelmingly elected him twice, only to see both terms of office
brutally interrupted by military coups.

President Aristide’s ouster was the culmination of a U.S.-led
destabilization campaign which included withholding of loans, funding
of political opposition groups and arming and training of former
military officials and death squad leaders.

Since the military insurgency began in late January, militias have
murdered thousands of people, burned hundreds of homes and forced
tens of thousands of activists in President Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas
Party to flee for their lives. Food prices have skyrocketed, with the
price of rice doubling, creating an unspeakably horrible situation
for the overwhelming majority of Haitians.

An occupation force led by the United States, France, Canada and
Chile replaced Haiti’s legal government and installed as president a
Haitian exile, Gerard Latortue, a resident of Florida who had not set
foot in Haiti for 15 years. UN “peacekeepers” lend undeserved
legitimacy to the coup government. Former military officials
currently control the police, while formerly exiled and jailed death
squad leaders again spread terror.

The U.S.-engineered coup in Haiti is in clear violation of U.S. and
international law. The Caribbean CARICOM countries and African Union
have repeatedly condemned this removal of Haiti’s democratically
elected president.

For further information, visit www.haitiaction.net or contact Pierre
Labossiere at pierre@haitiaction.net, Robert Roth at (415) 297-7869
or mirk1@mindspring.com or Leslie Fleming at (510) 558-0371 or
lesliefleming@mindspring.com.
.