23385: Esser: Rebellion in Bel Air (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

Haiti: Rebellion in Bel Air

Revolutionary Worker #1255
October 17, 2004

We received the following correspondence from a reader of the RW. For
background on Haiti--in particular the U.S.-backed removal of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February of this year--see the
articles online at rwor.org/s/world.htm#haiti. Since aristide's
ouster, Haiti has been occupied by U.S. and UN troops. In September,
shortly before the events described in this correspondence, nearly
2,000 Haitians were killed when Tropical Storm Jeanne caused huge
floods.

 From a rooftop in the Bel Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the
capital of Haiti, 14-year-old Gerald stood guard with two plastic
buckets full of rocks. As police, heavily armed with U.S.-supplied
equipment, entered his street, Gerald tossed rocks onto the tin roofs
of his neighbors to warn them of impending attack and then began
heaving heavy rocks off the roof onto police vehicles below.

Within minutes, residents surrounded the police cars and, in a hail
of rocks and trash, forced the Haitian National Police--now a major
instrument in the government's campaign of terror against the
people--out of the area.

Gerald is one of tens of thousands of ordinary Haitians who have
joined forces in recent days to resist the continued occupation of
their country by imperialist UN troops and the repressive policies of
the Latortue regime.

"We are sick of seeing people die. The other day, police murdered
Wendy and they will kill more of us, because to the bourgeoisie our
lives are worthless," Gerald explains, referring to the killing of
Wendy Manigat, 15, murdered by police on Oct. 1. "Working within the
system doesn't work for us anymore. We are voiceless because when the
Americans took away the president we voted for, they slit our
throats."

"We see now that there is no way the bourgeoisie will let us have a
fair chance to make a decent life for ourselves. My generation and
the generation of my parents is standing now and saying `no more.' We
know that working through the ballot box and diplomatic discussions
between politicians only benefits those in power and those with the
wealth, so now we are looking for a different way, one that benefits
ordinary people."

In the past week, residents of Bel Air, one of the most populous
neighborhoods in the capital and a hotbed of anti-occupation
sentiment, have begun to physically resist police incursions into
their neighborhood. Haiti has been occupied by foreign troops since
February. The capital's impoverished majority have been under siege
from the Haitian National Police, many of whom are members of the
death squads which murdered thousands of peasants during the 1991
coup and then forced Aristide from power earlier this year.

Since the U.S.-backed death squads overthrew the government of Jean
Bertrand Aristide in February, and American Ambassador Foley
installed Florida businessman Gerald Latortue as prime minister,
protests against the new government and the occupying American and UN
forces have been primarily peaceful.

However, as each march was met with swift and violent repression on
the part of both police and foreign troops, Haitians have been forced
to create a nascent organized resistance that, using any available
weapon, protects their neighborhoods from those who try to squash the
popular protest. This is a huge departure from the stance previously
taken by anti-occupation leaders who urged calm, peaceful protests.

"We can't stand by any longer and watch while our lives are
destroyed. We've come to the end of our rope. It is unethical, it is
wrong, for us to peacefully protest while the white military comes
into our homes and murders our children," said one community leader.

In the past six months foreign military troops--some American--were
responsible for the brutal murders of dozens of people, most of whom
were peaceably going about their business when they were killed. Many
others have been illegally arrested, disappeared or shot down in cold
blood by CIA-trained and funded death squads as well as the Haitian
National Police.

Those killed last week include Marguerite Saint-Fils, 35, who was
shot in her home by police; high schooler Wendy Manigat; Roland
Braneluce, 28, who was shot by police during a demonstration at Rue
Tiremasse; Maxo Casséus, a leader of a grassroots organization in
Cité Soleil who was killed by death squads on September 30, and
Piersine Adéma, an elderly woman who was reportedly assassinated by
the same group that killed Casséus, while she was sitting on her
front porch.

The Latortue regime is falling over backwards trying to stifle
popular dissent. Hundreds of anti-occupation protesters have also
been arrested without warrants or charges, including more than 75
youth arrested in Bel Air on Oct. 6. Radio stations have been
silenced by government orders. Dozens of journalists have been
arrested, killed or disappeared.

Hundreds of leaders of popular organizations are in prison. Each day
at 4 p.m., radio stations read a list of names supplied by the
Ministry of Justice, announcing that the named individuals are
prohibited from leaving the country and may be arrested. Death squads
have taken the list as permission to go after and beat or kill those
named.

On September 30, thousands marched through downtown Port-au-Prince to
protest brutal acts against the people committed by the Haitian
National Police. Masked members of the Unite de Securite
Presidentielle (USP), a special security unit assigned to Interim
President Boniface Alexandre, responded by firing into the crowd of
unarmed demonstrators, killing six. The people then departed from
their peaceful stance and fought back, arming themselves and
attacking USP cops. At that moment, an armed resistance to the
oppression was born.

Pitched battles continued in the streets. On the night of Oct. 1,
police, who attempted to raid several homes of anti-occupation
activists, surrounded Bel Air. When police drew their guns, the
people responded, shooting back at the Haitian National Police and,
after a fierce three-hour battle, forcing cops to withdraw.

On Oct. 2, former Deputy Roudy H…rivaux, Senator Yvon Feuill…, and
Senator Gerald Gilles participated in Ranmasé, a talk show broadcast
on Radio Caraibes. All three are members of the former government and
are moderates, supporters of Aristide, who have urged Haitians to
work "within the system for a peaceful resolution." The three were on
the air to decry the Sept. 30 attacks on unarmed protesters by police
and to criticize the repressive policies of the interim government.

Before the show was finished hundreds of heavily armed CIMO riot
police surrounded the radio station. All three--and a fourth, Lawyer
Ax…ne Joseph who arrived to defend them--were arrested on order of
Minister of Justice Bernard Gousse who maintains that H…rivaux and
Feuill… are the "intellectual authors" of the people's rebellion.

Radio Caraibes suspended broadcasting in protest, but other radio
stations continue to be used as an instrument of terror by the
Latortue regime. On the morning of Oct. 2, a police spokesperson
asked listeners to stations Radio Metropole and Sweet FM to "notify
us if you suspect there are chimere living in your neighborhood. We
will come and arrest them." Chimere is a derogatory term used both to
refer to unemployed young men from the slums and to militants who
either support the deposed president Aristide or protest the
occupation.

But those rebelling against the Latortue regime were undeterred. On
Oct. 2 the resistance spread to Martissant, an impoverished area
spanning the western section of the capital city. At 10 a.m. the
police ringed the neighborhood, using the bogus excuse of an attack
on the local police station (which never happened), to arrest
anti-occupation militants. According to witnesses, police killed
several bystanders and wounded at least a dozen before arresting 24
men. But the people fought back, shooting in the air and eventually
at police, who were forced to withdraw.

"We're prepared. We're going to fight back now. We know there's a
possibility that the foreign military or the police could come for us
at any moment. We know that our very lives depend on fighting back
and building to a moment when we can seize power," says Margaurette,
22, who organizes her block's supply of homemade weapons.

"The October 2 arrests follow a sharp upturn in attacks against
critics of the interim government's human rights policies," reports
human rights attorney Brian Concannon from the Institute for Justice
and Democracy in Haiti, which provides legal advocacy for
anti-occupation protesters who have been attacked by police and
paramilitary forces. "On September 16, police officers raided the
offices of the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH) labor union and
arrested nine union members, all without a warrant. Hours later,
masked men in military attire attacked the office of the Committee
for the Protection of the Rights of the Haitian People (CDPH)." Both
organizations have encouraged public resistance against the
U.S.-installed regime.

There is currently no revolutionary party in Haiti, but the Haitian
people themselves are beginning to articulate a vision for something
that moves beyond the confines of bourgeois democracy which has been
their focal point since the departure of U.S.-backed Baby Doc
Duvalier, a dictator who was forced from the country under popular
protest in 1986. The resulting pro-democracy movement brought
Aristide to power, but, hampered by U.S. intervention and the limits
of capitalist democracy, he was unable to bring about lasting change
for the Haitian people.

The U.S. government and the international media has tried to
discredit the resistance, portraying those protesting as few in
number and describing them as "machete-wielding Aristide supporters"
who, they claim, decapitated innocent policemen. In a country where
the media has easy access to morgues and hospitals, no decapitated
bodies have been located and police spokespeople haven't been able to
produce the names of those supposedly killed and decapitated by the
resistance.

Who are the resisters? They are men and women, some as young as 13
and as old as 69. Most are former peasants who were forced from their
land by the economic downfall of the IMF-mandated structural
adjustment programs that drove small farmers out of business. They
brought their families to the capital in the last 10 to 20 years,
desperately searching for jobs that didn't exist. Most live in
neighborhoods such as Cité Soleil and Bel Air where two or three
families share one small room in a concrete or tin shack.

 From his perch above Bel Air, Gerald pointed out raw sewage running
through the streets between towering piles of garbage. "I'm not even
an adult yet, and even I know that I don't have anything to lose by
resisting the new government. This is no kind of life to live for,
and we youth know that it's only by fighting for a different kind of
world that our lives will be better."

This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker
Online
http://rwor.org
.