23368: Esser: Haitian regime escalates repression (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

People's Weekly World Newspaper

Haitian regime escalates repression
by Tim Pelzer

October 7, 2004
 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia; According to an American filmmaker and
journalist living in Haiti, the country's U.S.-installed government
is intensifying its repression of supporters of former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Speaking via telephone from Haiti to a Sept. 30 meeting here, Kevin
Pina stated that the regime that helped depose Aristide has arrested
and detained ìan incredible numberî of people on false charges. It
has especially targeted those who are demanding Aristideís return to
office.

Earlier that day, Haitian police had fired on thousands of unarmed
demonstrators in Port-au-Prince, the nationís capital, who had
marched and called for a return to constitutional order. An unknown
number were killed and injured.

Calling these developments the "next level of repression," Pina said
that, initially, the regime headed by Gerard Latortue was conducting
police sweeps through poor neighborhoods and arresting all young
males. "Now they are arresting labor leaders, clergy and church
people." He also stated that there are numerous reports of police and
paramilitaries assassinating Aristide supporters, including burning
some alive.

Asked about the whereabouts of Aristide's cabinet, Pina said that
most cabinet ministers are either in jail, in hiding or in exile.

Pina said that the U.S.-sponsored coup against Aristide has angered
people. The opposition movement that overthrew the Lavalas government
earlier this year is not homegrown but was nurtured by the U.S.
government. Contrary to what the international press has reported,
the Aristide government was supported by the majority of the Haitian
people. He said there has been a campaign to demonize Aristide and
cast him as a repressive dictator.

"When I read the international press, I'm not sure that I'm living in
the country they are describing," Pina said. Prior to the coup, he
said, Haitiís impoverished majority felt empowered for the first time.

Describing the Sept.30 demonstration, Pina reported that up to 15,000
people marched, "and if police had not attacked protesters the march
could have easily swelled to 50,000."

"As pro-Aristide protesters marched past the city's main prison," he
said, "police opened fire on the crowd, killing and wounding several
people. Police then placed the bodies in a nearby truck. Then a car
passed by and opened fire on the Port-au-Prince police, killing three
officers. Angry protesters then burned the police vehicle."

Pina also reported that the National Coalition for Haitian Rights
(NCHR) ('a human rights group') is helping to foster the climate of
repression by making false allegations that Aristide's Lavalas Party
is organizing armed attacks against opponents and committing crimes.

"They [the NCHR leaders] are very destructive, spreading rumors but
offering no evidence to back up their claims." Unfortunately, he
said, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch get much of their
information about the country's human rights situation from the NCHR.

Describing the horrible human toll wrought by Tropical Storm Jeanne
as "a nightmare, compounded by tragedy", Pina remarked that prior to
the storm the country had been prepared for such a disaster. The
Aristide government set up a disaster relief network across the
country, "But the events of February 29 [the day of Aristideís
ouster] destroyed all of this."

Pina, who has lived in Haiti since the early 1990s, spoke to the
meeting at the invitation of Stop War and the Latin American and
Caribbean Solidarity Committee. His most recent documentary, 'Haiti:
Harvest of Hope', describes the rise of Aristide.

The author can be reached at tpelzer@shaw.ca.
.